The American Council on Germany and KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft will host a breakfast briefing on “Allies at a Crossroads? Rethinking Transatlantic Security in a Disrupted World” with Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, Retired Commanding General of United States Army Europe and Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller, Director of the Center on the United States and Europe and Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and Transatlantic Relations at The Brookings Institution (1993 ACG Young Leader), moderated by Ambassador John B. Emerson, Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Vice Chairman at Capital Group International, and Chairman of the American Council on Germany.
Lieutenant General Ben Hodges served as Commanding General of United States Army Europe from 2014 to 2017 before his retirement from the Army in early 2018. He is a Distinguished Fellow with GLOBSEC and consults for several companies on Europe, NATO, and the European Union. He is co-author of the book Future War and the Defense of Europe. Lt. Gen. Hodges has a regular presence in U.S. and international media, where he offers insight and analysis on NATO, U.S. and European security, the Russian war against Ukraine, the greater Black Sea and Baltic Sea Regions, the Israel-Hamas war, the U.S. Election and its implications for transatlantic security, human rights, and other related geostrategic topics. He most recently served as NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics. Prior to that, he was an Advisor to Human Rights First, a nonprofit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in the United States. Before joining Human Rights First, Lt. Gen. Hodges held the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the
Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). Lt. Gen. Hodges graduated from the United States Military Academy in May 1980 and was commissioned in the Infantry. He serves on the Board of the American Council on Germany.
Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller (1993 ACG Young Leader) is an expert on German, European, and transatlantic foreign and security policy and strategy. She is the Director of the Center on the United States and Europe and the inaugural holder of the Fritz Stern Chair on Germany and Transatlantic Relations at Brookings. She held the Kissinger Chair on Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress from October 2019 to March 2020, and served as the inaugural Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at
Brookings from 2014 to 2019. Prior to working at Brookings, Dr. Stelzenmüller was a Senior Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), where she directed the influential Transatlantic Trends survey program. She also managed the “New Power, New Responsibility” project. Her areas of expertise include:
transatlantic relations; German foreign policy; NATO; the European Union’s foreign, security, and defense policy; international law; and human rights. Dr. Stelzenmüller is the former Director of GMF’s Berlin office. From 1994 to 2005, she was Defense and International Security Editor in the political section of the German weekly DIE ZEIT; previously, she had covered human rights issues, war crimes tribunals, and humanitarian crises. She has worked in Germany and the United States, and speaks English, French, German, and Spanish. Dr. Stelzenmüller holds a doctorate in law from the University of Bonn (1992), a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (1988), and a law degree from the University of Bonn (1985).
Ambassador John B. Emerson (moderator) was named Chairman of the American Council on Germany in January 2018. He is Vice Chairman at Capital Group International. Previously, he was the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2013 to 2017. In 2015, Ambassador Emerson received the State Department’s Sue M. Cobb Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service, an award given annually to one non-career Ambassador. In 2017, the Secretary of the Navy and the Director of the CIA awarded him their highest civilian honors for his service. Prior to accepting the ambassadorial posting, John B. Emerson was President of Private Client Services for the Capital Group Companies. Before joining Capital, he was Deputy Assistant to President Clinton where he coordinated his economic conferences, served as the president’s liaison to the nation’s governors, and
led the administration’s efforts to obtain congressional approval of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement and the extension of China s MFN trading status. Additionally, he was appointed by President Obama to serve on his Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Before working in the Clinton White House, he served as Los Angeles Chief Deputy City Attorney and was a partner in the law firm of Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg, and Phillips.