Germany: The Geopolitical Uncertainties of a Geo-Economic Power
For the first time, “Transatlantic Trends,” a survey of the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) beginning in 2002, showed that a majority of Germans now prefer a …
Relevancy of Apprenticeships
During our apprenticeship tour of Germany, France, and the UK, I was impressed at the respect that the general population held for apprenticeship programs. One of our taxi drivers in …
Who Is an Apprentice?
While our focus in Europe has been on the broad structure of apprenticeship systems, we should not lose sight of the apprentices themselves. Many times we have been told “no …
Post-Unification German Studies: Momentum Gained or Lost?
Carl Bildt, until recently Sweden’s foreign minister, told Thomas Friedman of the New York Times in 2003: “For a generation Americans and Europeans shared the same date: 1945. A whole …
Germany’s Foreign Policy of Reconciliation
Now available in paperback, AGI Society, Culture & Politics Director Dr. Lily Gardner Feldman’s book, “Germany’s Foreign Policy of Reconciliation: From Enmity to Amity,” highlights Germany as a model for …
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Support Our WorkApprenticeship Loyalty in Hannover
Today we went to the MMBbS, an information technology and media vocational training school two hours south of Berlin by train, and learned about the school that was built on …
Dual System Dilemmas
Germany was derided not too long ago as the “sick man of Europe” after years of economic malaise. It is now lauded as the world’s Exportweltmeister; its current-account surplus even …
The Day the Berlin Wall Really Fell
Contrary to popular lore, the Berlin Wall did not fall on November 9, 1989. Nor did it fall in Berlin. It fell on October 9 some 120 miles away, in …
The Katyn Massacre: Half a Century of Lies and the Search for Truth
Borrowing institutionally from the German-Polish case, Polish-Russian reconciliation had been making small, tentative steps until the crisis in and over Ukraine. There is some effort to continue civil society interaction, …
First Impressions of French Apprenticeships
As part of the AGI site visit tour, my colleagues and I spent our first day in Paris getting an in-depth view of the French apprenticeship system. We started off at …
Post-Soviet Apprenticeship
After the hustle and bustle of the capital city, our train passed through the countryside. Small family farms with goats abutted a busy railway. Our destination also lay in between …
The French Challenge
The French government recently announced that the age of austerity is finally over—at least for France. That it will now disregard most of its commitments on reducing fiscal deficits represents …