As the world continues to grapple with the coronavirus crisis, other global challenges abound. Germany and the United States have to tackle simultaneous public health, economic, and social justice crises at home but in all corners of the globe foreign policy challenges are simmering. 2021 has already seen a host of issues – from a confrontational U.S.-China relationship to an increasingly aggressive Russia (in Ukraine and Syria not to mention interfering in western elections); from nuclear tensions with Iran and North Korea to instability in the Middle East and in Latin America; from migration and humanitarian crises to issues like counter-terrorism, cyber-security, and climate.
As Germany heads toward federal elections in September 2021, what role will foreign policy play?
Join the American Council on Germany, Deutsches Haus at NYU, and NYU’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies for a discussion with Bundestag members Metin Hakverdi (SPD), Gyde Jensen (FDP), and Omid Nouripour (The Greens) regarding Germany’s foreign policy priorities in an election year.
Metin Hakverdi joined the SPD in 2002 and has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2013. He serves on the Bundestag’s Committee on European Union Affairs and on the Finance Committee. He is the Chairman of the USA/North America Working Group within the SPD Parliamentary Group and a member of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group in the German Bundestag.
Before being elected to the Bundestag, Mr. Hakverdi was a member of the Parliament of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg from 2008 to 2013, where he was on the Budget Committee and the Committee of Public Companies and Assets. He attended high school in Simi Valley, California, in 1985/86 and studied law at the Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel and at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. He became licensed to practice law in 2000.
Gyde Jensen (ACG Young Leader alumna) became a member of the Bundestag in 2018, making her the youngest female member of parliament in the 19th German Bundestag at that time. On 31 January 2018, she assumed the chairmanship of the Bundestag Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, making her the youngest committee chairwoman in the history of the Bundestag.
In addition to her role in parliament, Ms. Jensen has been serving as a member of the German delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2018. As a member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), she is part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group. She currently serves on the Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, and the Sub-Committee on Human Rights.
Omid Nouripour is the Foreign Policy Spokesperson of the Green Parliamentary Group. He was elected to the Bundestag in 2006 and currently serves on the Committees on Foreign Policy and Human Rights.
Mr. Nouripour has been an active member of the German Green Party (Alliance 90/The Greens) since 1996. From 1999 until 2003, he was the chairman of the Green Party’s Youth Organization in Hessen. When elected, he took over the political mandate of Joschka Fischer, the former German Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister. Mr. Nouripour first worked on European issues and Internal Affairs and was later a member of both the Budget Committee as well as the Committee of Defense.
He studied German Philology, Political Science, and Law at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz.
