American Council On Germany

Elections, Law, and Politics
2024-10-29 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York)
On October 29, the ACG and 1014 will host a discussion as part of our Superwahljahr series with Prof. Franz Mayer, Chair in Public Law, European Law, Comparative Law, and Law and Politics at the University of Bielefeld and Scholar in Residence at Columbia University Prof. Franz Mayer holds the Chair in Public Law, European Law, Public International Law, Comparative Law and Law and Politics at the University of Bielefeld (Law Faculty). He studied Law, Political Science and History at the Universities of Bonn and Munich, at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po) and at Yale Law School. Visiting researcher Harvard Law School 2000; annual Visiting lecturer University of Warsaw since 2000; Visiting professor at Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne) 2007 and at Paris 2 (Panthéon-Assas) 2010; General Course Academy of European Law, European University Institute, Florence, 2011; Senior Emile Noël Fellow, NYU School of Law 2011; Visiting professor of Law at Columbia Law School Winter term 2012/2013; Short Term International Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia Law School Fall term 2024 (non-resident).
Professor Mayer was Counsel in proceedings at the German Constitutional Court to the German Parliament in the Treaty of Lisbon-trial in 2008-2009 and in the first case related to the Euro-crisis, the case on the Euro stabilization mechanism 2010-2012, his most recent case for the German Parliament was the Next Generation EU-case on the €800 billion temporary recovery instrument (2021-2022). He was Counsel at the German Constitutional Court to the German government in the CETA case (2016-2022) and in the case on the Unified European Patent Court (2017-2020). His most recent case for the German government concerns the constitutionality of the new EP election law (2023-2024). In 2023, he was part of a Franco-German Group of 12 experts invited by the German and the French minister for Europe to write a report on institutional reform of the EU.
His teaching and research interests focus on European constitutional and administrative law, on comparative law, on the relationship between European law and politics, on parliaments in times of globalization, on internet law, sports law (European soccer law) and more generally on international law and public law. Since 2016, he has been a member of the German Football Association’s Federal Court (DFB Bundesgericht), ethics chamber. He has dual French and German citizenship and lives in Berlin with his family.

German-American Relations after the U.S Election and ahead of German Elections in 2025
2024-10-29 18:00 - 19:30
On October 29, the American Council on Germany and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) New York Office will host an event with Hermann Gröhe, member of the German Bundestag and Deputy Chairman of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group.

Hermann Gröhe is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister of Health in the third cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 until 2018. Becoming a member of the CDU in 1977, Mr. Gröhe has been a member of the German Bundestag since 1994. Between 1998 and 2005, he was his parliamentary group’s spokesperson on human rights and humanitarian aid. He subsequently served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2005 until 2008. From 2008 until 2009, Mr. Gröhe briefly served as Minister of State at the Federal Chancellery under Chancellor Angela Merkel.
During his time in office as Federal Minister of Health, Mr. Gröhe focused heavily on global health issues. In March 2016, Mr. Gröhe was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, which was co-chaired by presidents François Hollande of France and Jacob Zuma of South Africa. He later led Germany’s delegation to the 2016 High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS in New York.
Since March 2018, Mr. Gröhe has been serving as deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. In this capacity, he oversees the group’s initiatives on social affairs and development policy.

Russia’s War in Ukraine: The Situation is Serious
2024-10-31 11:00 - 12:00
It has been more than two years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Despite heavy fighting, Russia still occupies 18 percent of Ukraine. Ukraine’s counteroffensive efforts have stalled, and Russia has launched a new offensive in Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region. Meanwhile, Russia continues to bomb Ukrainian cities and block its ports, and Ukraine has increased drone attacks on Russian ships and infrastructure.
The situation in Ukraine is serious. Fighting and air strikes have inflicted over 30,000 civilian casualties, while 3.7 million people are internally displaced, and 6.5 million have fled Ukraine. More than 14 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
Join the ACG for a discussion with award-winning Stern reporter Moritz Gathmann about the situation in Ukraine. He has covered Ukraine for over a decade and has been reporting on the war from throughout the country. Moritz Gathmann is a journalist who has reported extensively from Ukraine for SPIEGEL magazine, Stern, and other news outlets. He has been a journalist for two decades and has focused on post-Soviet countries. He spent five years in Russia as a correspondent for German media outlets – first in Moscow and then Kaluga. In 2014, he was a witness to the bloody upraising in the Maidan, and reported on the war in eastern Ukraine. Since February 2022, he has covered the war in Ukraine.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2024-11-11 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, November 11 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Marc Felix Serrao, Editor-in-Chief in Germany for the Neue Züricher Zeitung. Marc Felix Serrao has been the Head of the Berlin office since July 2017 and Editor-in-Chief of the Neue Züricher Zeitung in Germany since 2021. After military service, he studied political science in Berlin. In 2004/05, he was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University in New York. He graduated in 2006. Mr. Serrao worked for the Süddeutsche Zeitung from 2007 to 2016 – first as a trainee, then as deputy head of the society and style department. In 2015, he began a part-time Executive MBA at the Wissenschaftliche Hochschule für Unternehmensführung (WHU) and the Kellogg School of Management. From 2016 to 2017, he served as the Business editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Let's Talk Democracy: Quo Vadis, America?
2024-11-12 18:30 - 20:30 | Goethe, 30 Irving Place, New York, NY, 10003, United States
Join 1014, the American Council on Germany, and the Goethe Institut for a discussion with Dr. Alexander Görlach Adjunct Professor, NYU Gallatin School and Dr. Daniel Ziblatt, Director, Harvard University’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies and Professor of Government, Harvard University.

Dr. Alexander Görlach is an adjunct professor at NYU Gallatin School, where he teaches democratic theory. Before that, he held various positions as a visiting scholar and fellow at Harvard University, as well as Cambridge and Oxford Universities in the United Kingdom. He is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York and a senior advisor to the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles. He holds a doctorate in Comparative Religion and a doctorate in Linguistics. His academic interests include democratic theory, politics and religion, and theories of secularism, pluralism, and cosmopolitanism. In the academic year 2017-18, he was a visiting scholar at National Taiwan University and City University Hong Kong. Since then, he has focused on the rise of China and what it means for the democracies in East Asia. Dr. Görlach is an honorary Professor of Ethics and Theology at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany. He is the Founder of the debate magazine The European, which he also ran as its editor-in-chief from 2009 to 2015. Today, he is an op-ed contributor to the New York Times, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and the South China Morning Post. He is a columnist for the business magazines Wirtschaftswoche, Deutsche Welle, and Focus Online. He is a frequent commentator on German News Channel WELT TV.

Dr. Daniel Ziblatt is the director of Harvard University’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies where he is also Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University. He leads a research group based in Germany at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. His research focuses on Europe and the comparative study of democracy. He is the author of four books, including How Democracies Die (2018), co-authored with Steven Levitsky, a New York Times best-seller and described by The Economist magazine as “the most important book of the Trump era.” The book has been translated into thirty languages. In 2023, he published Tyranny of the Minority (w/ Steve Levitsky), an analysis of American democracy in comparative perspective, also a New York Times bestseller. Prior to this, he was the author of the prize-winning book Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2017), a history of democracy in Europe, in addition to a book on European state-building entitled Structuring the State (Princeton University Press, 2006). In 2023, Ziblatt was elected member of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences.

2024 John J. McCloy Awards Dinner
2024-11-13 18:00 - 21:00

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2024-11-18 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, November 18 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Malte Lehming, Columnist for Tagesspiegel. Malte Lehming works as a columnist for the Tagesspiegel From late 2000 to 2005, he was the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the Tagesspiegel in 1991 as foreign policy editor — focusing on security policy, transatlantic relations, and the Middle East. From 1989 to 1991, he worked as a personal assistant and speechwriter for former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Mr. Lehming studied philosophy, German literature, and European history in Hamburg.

Multilateralism under Trump 2.0: A German Perspective
2024-11-18 18:00 - 20:00
The American Council on Germany and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) New York Office invite you to a discussion and reception with Roderich Kiesewetter, Member of the German Bundestag (CDU/CSU) on “Multilateralism under Trump 2.0: A German Perspective” Roderich Kiesewetter is Member of the German Parliament (CDU) and former General Staff Officer of the Bundeswehr. He studied economics in Munich and Austin/Texas. He served for almost 30 years in the German Armed Forces in various command, staff assignments and in various foreign missions. He has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009. Kiesewetter is representative of foreign affairs for the CDU/CSU-Caucus and deputy chairperson of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel. In 2022 he was elected as Spokesperson for crisis prevention. Since 2019 Kiesewetter is Speaker of the advisory council of the Federal Academy for Security Policy Council.

What Comes Next? The Impact of the New European Commission’s Digital Policy on Transatlantic Businesses
2024-11-19 12:00 - 14:00
Join the American Council on Germany and the American Business Forum on Europe for a Lunch Discussion with Oliver Süme, Partner at Fieldfisher and Chair of the Board of the Internet Industry Association (eco) on “What Comes Next? The Impact of the New European Commission’s Digital Policy on Transatlantic Businesses”
The European AI Act was adopted on August 1, 2024, and although the new AI supervisory authority is still under construction, there is already additional digital regulation appearing at the horizon: The European Data Act will apply in September 2025, regulating the entire Internet of Things Industry and aiming to further enhance Europe’s data economy. What impact will this very complex regulatory framework have on transatlantic businesses and what can we expect from the new European Commission, which will begin its work in December 2024? Oliver Süme is a Partner at the European law firm Fieldfisher and Chair of the Board of the Internet Industry Association. He advises his international clients on all legal challenges in Technology Law, in particular IT contract law, data protection and legal issues relating to IT security. Mr. Süme is also Chair of the Board of eco – Association of the Internet Industry and heads the data protection working group of EuroISPA, the European umbrella organization of internet service providers.

Superwahljahr 2024: Voter Behavior in Eastern Germany - Is it a Litmus Test for Federal Elections in 2025?
2024-11-21 11:00 - 12:00
Join the ACG for a virtual discussion with award-winning German journalist Sabine Schicketanz as part of our Superwahljahr 2024 series.

“Double Exposure: Colonialism and its Impact on Political Solidarity Today”
2024-11-22 18:00 - 19:30
The ACG and the Goethe Institut are having a discussion in Washington DC with Dr. Emily Marker and Dr. Monica van der Haagen-Wulff on “Double Exposure: Colonialism and its Impact on Political Solidarity Today”
After the end of World War II, European nations promoted European unification as a “peace project.” What remained largely ignored was the obligation resulting from the colonial past of countries like Germany, France, and Great Britain. What kind of solidarity can be expected from the descendants of the colonizers – and those who were colonized? With its legacy of slavery, similar questions came to the forefront in the context of Black Lives Matter: Is there an obligation for white majority society to show solidarity to the descendants of enslaved people? Dr. Emily Marker and Dr. Monica van der Haagen-Wulff will discuss the significance of historical injustices today – and how this plays out in the complex political environment we live in. Emily Marker is an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University. Her research and teaching interests are in imperial and postcolonial Europe, francophone Africa, race, religion, youth, and global history. Her recent book, Black France, White Europe: Youth, Race, and Belonging in the Postwar Era (Cornell, 2022), explores how public and private programs to promote solidarity between French and African youth collided with transnational efforts to make young people in Western Europe feel European after World War II. Based on several years of archival research in France, Senegal, Italy and Belgium, Black France, White Europe locates these competing generational projects at the center of the entangled history of decolonization and European integration.
In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Marker works on initiatives for social justice and equity in the academy. A co-founder of the Race and Pedagogy Working Group at the University of Chicago (2015), she has organized workshops and community classes on power, privilege, and inclusive teaching. In 2023-24, Dr. Marker is serving as president of the Camden Chapter of Rutgers AAUP-AFT. She’s also a member of the Graduate Faculty in History at Rutgers-New Brunswick, the Executive Committee of Rutgers’ Center for African Studies, and the Faculty Advisory Board of Rutgers’ Center for European Studies. Dr. Marker is currently the president of the Western Society for French History.
Monica van der Haagen-Wulff is an Associate Lecturer at the Chair for Education and Cultural Sociology in the Department of Education and Social Sciences at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Cologne. Her teaching and research interests include cultural- and postcolonial studies, migration, intersectionality, post- and decolonial feminist theories, globalization, global cities, affect theory, embodiment, fictocritical writing, and critical heritage/memory studies. Monica has a transcultural dance and performance background, and her main research focus is on how practice and theory can be merged to create new knowledges and in so doing decenter Eurocentric knowledge constructions. She is an active member of the German Network for Anti-Racist School-Pedagogy (Netzwerk Rassismuskritische Schulpädagogik), as well as a founding member of the Forum Decolonizing Academia at the University of Cologne. Her teaching is inspired by bell hooks’ concepts of engaged pedagogy. She has published in international academic journals.

Kaffeepause: What’s Abuzz in Berlin?
2024-11-25 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts a discussion with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, November 25 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Melissa Eddy, New York Times Correspondent based in Berlin. Melissa Eddy is a correspondent based in Berlin who covers German politics, social issues, and culture for The New York Times. Her most recent work has delved into the challenges of integrating one million refugees, the spate of Islamist terror attacks, and the legacy of a trove of Nazi-looted art.
She has covered Germany’s green energy transformation and Chancellor Angela Merkel since she entered office in 2005. A Minnesota native fluent in German and French, she came to Germany as a Fulbright scholar in 1996. Before joining The International Herald Tribune, now the international edition of The New York Times, in 2015, she was a correspondent for The Associated Press in Frankfurt, Vienna, and the Balkans

“Double Exposure: Is Interest Politics Dead?”
2024-11-25 18:00 - 19:30
The ACG and the Geothe Institut are having a discussion with Dr. Delia Baldassarri and Dr. Jan-Werner Müller on “Double Exposure: Is Interest Politics Dead?”
Today’s societies are characterized by a high degree of diversity and complexity. Cultural, ethnic, religious, and linguistic differences can make social cohesion difficult. Against this backdrop, political and public institutions can foster solidarity across social groups. How do these different interest groups interact with public and political institutions? As polarization and populism reshape the political arena, understanding the role of interest politics is critical. Independent courts, political parties, and a free press can play a critical role in this regard. Dr. Delia Baldassarri and Dr. Jan-Werner Müller will explore the forces promoting and disrupting social cohesion in today’s complex environment. Delia Baldassari is Julius Silver, Roslyn S. Silver, and Enid Silver Winslow Professor in the Department of Sociology at New York University. She holds courtesy appointments in the Wilf Family Department of Politics and in the Management and Organizations Department at the Stern School of Business. Dr. Baldassarri earned a B.A. and a Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Research from the University of Trento, Italy (2003; 2006), and a Ph.D. in Sociology from Columbia University (2007). Previously, she was an Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor at Princeton University.
Dr. Baldassarri’s research interests are in the fields of Economic Sociology, Political Sociology, Social Networks, and Analytical Sociology. Her current research projects include a study of the emergence of cooperation in complex societies, focusing on the empirical case of ethnically heterogeneous communities and a book project, Partisan Misfits, that investigates the demographic and social network bases of partisanship in American public opinion. Dr. Baldassarri has received a few career awards, including the Freeman Award, given by the International Network of Social Network Analysis to distinguished scholars in the field of social networks, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, the Raymond Boudon Award for early career achievement from the European Academy of Sociology, and the Hans L. Zetterberg Prize in Sociology.
Jan-Werner Müller studied at the Free University, Berlin, University College, London, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and Princeton University. From 1996 until 2003 he was a Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford; from 2003 until 2005 he was Fellow in Modern European Thought at the European Studies Centre, St. Antony’s College. Since 2005 he has been teaching in the Politics Department, Princeton University.
Dr. Müller has been a visiting fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin, Collegium Helsinki, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, and a number of other institutes; he has also been a Member of the School of Historical Studies, Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton. He has taught as a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, the Ludwig Maximilians-Universität in Munich, American University, Beirut, the Law School of Haifa University, the Humboldt Universität in Berlin, and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris. He has delivered the Carlyle Lectures at Oxford and the Tanner Lectures at Cambridge; he also offered lectures on the European Union and democracy at the Collège de France in 2024.
Dr. Müller is a co-founder of the European College of Liberal Arts, Berlin (ECLA; today: Bard Berlin), Berlin, Germany’s first private, English-speaking liberal arts college, for which he served as founding research director. He maintains a strong interest in international teaching and research initiatives centered on the liberal arts.

A Central Banker’s View on the Current Developments in Germany, Europe and the United States
2024-12-03 18:00 - 19:30
The American Council on Germany is having a discussion with Burkhard Balz on “A Central Banker’s View on the Current Developments in Germany, Europe and the United States”

Burkhard Balz Burkhard Balz, born in 1969, has served on the Bundesbank’s Executive Board since September 2018 and is responsible for the Directorates General Payments and Settlement Systems, Cash Management, Digital Euro and International Central Bank Dialogue. He is a member of the Eurosystem High-Level Task Force on central bank digital currency. Mr. Balz is also a Member of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures of the Bank for International Settlements. Since January 2024 he is alternate member of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlement.
From 2009 up until joining the Deutsche Bundesbank, Mr. Balz was a Member of the Euro-pean Parliament, where he sat on the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and served as the financial policy spokesman of the European People’s Party (EPP) between 2014 and 2018. Mr. Balz was Chair of the European Parliamentary Financial Services Forum from 2014 to 2018, which is composed of financial market stakeholders and high-level representatives of the EU Institutions. Prior to his membership of the European Parliament, Mr. Balz held various positions at Commerzbank AG in Brussels and Hanover.

Global Trends and Rising Challenges: A Recap of the 2024 Super Election Year
2024-12-05 12:00 - 13:30
1014, the American Council on Germany, and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York Office are holding a discussion with Dr. Liana Fix and Dr. John Glenn on “Global Trends and Rising Challenges: A Recap of the 2024 Super Election Year” Dr. Liana Fix is a fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She is a historian and political scientist, with expertise in German and European foreign and security policy, European security, transatlantic relations, Russia, Eastern Europe, and European China policy. Dr. Fix is also the author of A New German Power? Germany’s Role in European Russia Policy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). She is an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University in the Center for German and European Studies and the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies.
Prior to joining CFR, Dr. Fix was program director for international affairs at Körber-Stiftung in Berlin. She was also a resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, DC, and a DAAD/AICGS fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies. From 2018 to 2019, she was a fellow for global governance futures at the Robert Bosch Foundation Multilateral Dialogues. From 2014 to 2016, Dr. Fix was a doctoral fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and associate fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. From 2012 to 2013, Dr. Fix worked as a Mercator fellow for international affairs at the German Federal Foreign Office, the EU Delegation in Tbilisi, and the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Dr. Fix has contributed essays, policy papers, and articles to journals including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and the Washington Quarterly, among others. She is also a frequent contributor to international and German-language media.
Dr. Fix received her MSc in theory and history of international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and her PhD in political science from the Justus Liebig University Giessen. She is a member of the Aspen Rising Leaders, the BMW Responsible Leaders Network, and of Women in International Security.

Dr. John K. Glenn is senior director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies, where he oversees and develops the Forum’s cross-cutting analytic and research activity in areas including transnational kleptocracy, the integrity of the information space, emerging technology, and modern authoritarian influence. He has over 20 years of international experience in the nonprofit, foundation, and academic sectors, having previously served as policy director at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, director of foreign policy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and executive director of the Council for European Studies.
He serves as adjunct faculty at the Elliott School for International Relations at George Washington University where he teaches graduate seminars on transatlantic relations, having previously taught at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is also an HFX Fellow on the Agenda Working Group for the Halifax International Security Forum.
Dr. Glenn holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and Ph.D. and A.M. from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He is the author of numerous articles, reports, and books on international affairs and democratic development, including Framing Democracy (Stanford University Press) and The Power and Limits of NGOs (Columbia University Press, co-edited with Sarah Mendelson).

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2024-12-09 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts discussions with a journalist based in Germany on the topics making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, December 9 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with ACG Fellowship alumna Miriam Hollstein, Chief Political Reporter for Stern. Miriam Hollstein serves as the Chief Political Reporter for Stern. Before this, she was the Chief Report from January 2022 to Septepmber 23 at T-Online in Berlin. Prior to this position, she served as the Chief Political Reporter for FUNKE Zentralredaktion from November 2020 to December 2021. She wrote for the Berliner Zeitung while still a student and worked as an editor for Internationale Politik. She worked as a foreign reporter for the Welt am Sonntag, and from 2006-2014 was a WELT-Gruppe’s domestic policy editor and reporter. From 2015 to 2020, she worked for the Bild am Sonntag, first as a domestic policy and then from 2018 as chief reporter of politics. Her reporting brought her into regular contact with the office of the German Chancellor. Since March 2020, she has worked as a freelance writer and moderator.
In 2009, she published the first graphic biography of Angela Merkel, entitled “Miss Tschörmanie,” together with illustrator Heiko Sakurai. She appears regularly on the German news program “Phoenix,” where she speaks on political and societal issues. She regularly travels internationally for reporting assignments. In addition, she was a 2005 Marshall Memorial Fellow, a 2008 ACG McCloy Fellow, and was recognized in 2015 by the DEFA Stiftung (German Film Corporation Foundation) for her contribution to preserving German film heritage.

The French No-Confidence Vote: A View from Berlin
2024-12-11 10:00 - 11:00
On December 5, the French Prime Minister, Michael Barnier, resigned after the left-wing coalition, New Popular Front, and the far-right National Rally Party, collaborated to topple his government. Only three months after it took office, Barnier’s government is the first to fall from a no-confidence vote in more than 60 years. The political dispute, which centered around the 2025 annual budget, suggests it will be harder to solve the country’s economic issues. France has the worst budget imbalance in the Eurozone with a 6.2% deficit of GDP.
The no-confidence vote has plunged the country into political chaos. In a nationwide address, French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the far-left and far-right forces that united, deeming them an “anti-Republican front.” Next door, Germany is facing its own political and economic troubles. The ruling three-party coalition collapsed in November and elections are slated for February. Government collapses in both Berlin and Paris will inhibit wider efforts to address European wide issues and will impact transatlantic relations.
Join the ACG for a virtual discussion with Jacob Ross, Research Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, to examine the French government collapse, Franco-German relations, and what comes next. Jacob Ross is a Research Fellow at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik e.V. (German Council on Foreign Relations, DGAP), where he focuses on France and Franco-German relations. He initially joined the DGAP in June 2021. Previously, he worked as a research assistant at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels. He had already gained experience within the Franco-German context while working at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and during his work as a parliamentary assistant to Sabine Thillaye, Chair of the European Affairs Committee of the French National Assembly.
Mr. Ross also received the majority of his academic training in France: first, within a Franco-German double-degree program at the Institute of Political Science (IEP) in Lille and, later, at the IEP in Paris and at the Ecole nationale d’administration (Ena) in Strasbourg. He also studied at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna while earning a master’s degree in international relations and economics.

What Does the End of the Assad Regime Mean for Syria and Iran's Dominance in the Region?
2024-12-12 11:00 - 12:00
Rebel forces in Syria have been steadily gaining ground in recent weeks. The culmination of their advances came on December 8, when the Iranian backed President Bashar al-Assad was forced into exile in Russia, essentially ending the 12-year civil war. Without Assad in power, the influence of Iran has suffered a major blow in the region, and potentially globally.
Join the ACG and the Center for Middle East and Global Order (CMEG) on December 12, for a virtual discussion with Iran and Middle East expert Dr. Ali Fathollah-Nejad, Founder and Director of CMEG. He will discuss the larger global impact of the end of Assad’s regime and the uncertain future for Syrians. Dr. Ali Fathollah-Nejad is a German–Iranian political scientist and author focusing on Iran, the Middle East, and the post-unipolar world order. He is Founder and Director of the Center for Middle East and Global Order (CMEG), a think-tank devoted to exploring transformations and promoting a foreign policy that reconciles interests and values. He currently teaches Middle East politics and international security at the Hertie School – The University of Governance in Berlin and is also a Fellow with the University of Bonn’s Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS). Among his publications are, most recently, The Islamic Republic in Existential Crisis: The Need for a Paradigm Shift in the EU’s Iran Policy (2023, European Union Institute for Security Studies, Chaillot Paper), the much-acclaimed book Iran in an Emerging New World Order (2021, Palgrave), The Islamic Republic of Iran Four Decades On: The 2017/18 Protests Amid a Triple Crisis (2020, Brookings), where he suggested the start of a long-term revolutionary process in Iran. His forthcoming book is titled Iran – How the West is Betraying its Values and Interests (in German). Ali is also the former Iran expert of the Brookings Institution in Doha (BDC, 2017–20), the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP, 2015–18), and the American University of Beirut’s Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs (AUB-IFI, 2022–24) as well as a 2022 McCloy Fellow on Global Trends of the American Council on Germany (ACG). He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Department of Development Studies at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) and was the winner of the 2016/17 post-doctoral fellowship of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Iran Project. He has taught, among others, at universities in London, Berlin, Doha, Tübingen, and Prague. The author of some 300 articles in English, German and French, with translations into a dozen other languages, Ali is also a regular commentator for major outlets across the globe.

Double Exposure: Museums and the Remembrance of the Shoah
2024-12-12 18:00 - 20:00
How is the Shoah addressed in museums? How do museums extend the representation and education of this singular rupture in the history of humankind to other genocides? What can be understood as universal lesson from the Shoah, and what consequences need to be drawn from it when it comes to the question of solidarity?
Please join us for a discussion between historian and philosopher Dr. Leora Auslander, Chair of the Department of Race, Diaspora and Indigeneity at the University of Chicago, and literary critic Dr. Mirjam Wenzel, director of the Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Dr. Leora Auslander is the Arthur and Joann Rasmussen Professor in Western Civilization and Professor of Modern European Social History at the University of Chicago where she was the founding director of the Center for Gender Studies and is a member of the Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies. Her research lies at the intersection of the micro and the macro: citizenship law and domestic interiors; clothing and colonialism; European regulation and everyday religious practice. At the Katz Center, Dr. Auslander will work on metaphorical eruvs in Germany and France between the years 1880 and 1970.
Dr. Auslander received her PhD from Brown University and has taught at the University of Paris, Potsdam University, the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan, among others.
Dr. Mirjam Wenzel studied general and comparative literature, political science, and theater studies in Berlin and Tel Aviv. Afterward she worked as a research assistant at the Institute of German Philology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and earned her doctorate with a dissertation on the Holocaust discourse in Germany in the 1960s. She is the author and co-editor of various books and exhibition catalogs on German-Jewish art and cultural history. Her publications include essays, articles, and blog entries on questions of cultural theory, aesthetics, and museology, on representations of the Holocaust in the visual arts, photography, and film, on critical theory, and particularly on the life and works of Siegfried Kracauer, Theodor W. Adorno, and Hannah Arendt. She also works as a curator and has developed several international exhibitions.
From 2007 to 2015, Dr. Wenzel directed the media department of the Jewish Museum Berlin, where she was responsible for the presentation of Jewish history and culture in digital and print media. She has been recognized as an international expert on the digital transformation of museums ever since. She has directed the Jewish Museum Frankfurt – Germany’s oldest Jewish Museum – since 2016 and has been an honorary professor at the Department of Jewish Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt since 2019. She will serve as a visiting professor at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar for the 2020/21 winter semester.

Kaffeepause: Special Edition – Germany’s Confidence Vote
2024-12-16 11:00 - 12:00
Join us on Monday, December 16, for a special edition of the ACG’s regular Kaffeepause. We’ll discuss the results of the German Bundestag’s confidence vote with Cameron Adabi, deputy editor at Foreign Policy, and Rüdiger Lentz, senior political advisor for the firm of Rud Pedersen. We’ll also talk about the first three years of the Ampelkoalition and the outlook for Germany’s snap election in February. Cameron Abadi is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy and co-host of FP’s Ones and Tooze podcast. He previously worked at the New Republic and Foreign Affairs and as a correspondent in Germany and Iran. His writing has appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek, the New Yorker, the New Republic, and Der Spiegel. He lives with his family in Berlin.
Rüdiger Lentz is currently working as a senior political advisor for the Nordic public affairs firm of Rud Pedersen in Berlin. Before that, he was the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Germany from 2013 to 2020. From 2009 until 2013, he served as the Executive Director of the German American Heritage Foundation and Museum in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, he worked as a TV correspondent and magazine journalist for Der Spiegel, ARD Television, Rias Berlin, and Deutsche Welle for over three decades. During his tenure as Bureau Chief for Deutsche Welle in Washington, D.C., he was a Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University, the School of Foreign Service in Washington, and a regular guest on BBC, CNN, and C-Span. Mr. Lentz has been a long-time member of the Atlantik-Brücke and is a member of the German Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a founding member of the German American Business Council (GABC) in Washington, D.C., and the Chairman of the Shepard Stone Foundation in Berlin.

German Politics and the Future of German-American Relations
2024-12-17 08:00 - 09:30
The ACG is having a discussion with Till Knorn, German Consul General in New York, on, “German Politics and the Future of German-American Relations.”
Till Knorn has been the German Consul General in New York since August 2024. Prior to that he served as the Chief of Protocol in the German Foreign Office (2020 to 2024) after three years as the Deputy Chief of Protocol. From 2015 to 2017, he was Head of Division, responsible for state and official visits. From 2013 to 2015, Mr. Knorn was Deputy Head of the Political Section at Germany’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York. Other positions in the Foreign Office included two years as the Deputy Head of the Crisis Response Center in Berlin (2011 to 1013), Desk Officer responsible for the UN Security Council (2003 to 2005), and a posting to Sri Lanka as the Head of the Legal and Consular Affairs Section (2001 to 2002). From 2006 to 2011, he was seconded to the State of Hessen, where he served as the Foreign Policy Advisor to the Minister-President. Mr. Knorn began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hamburg and joined the Federal Foreign Office in 1999. He was a high school exchange student in St. Louis, MO, and is a lawyer by training.

Hot Topics, Cold Realties - Migration
2025-01-15 12:00 - 13:00
Migration played a pivotal role in the U.S. elections, and it looms prominently in political debates in Germany ahead of elections next month. Join the ACG and 1014 for a discussion with Victoria Rietig, the Head of the Center for Migration at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), and award-winning journalist Molly O’Toole. They will help shed light on the trends, challenges, and opportunities arising from migration – and the role migration plays in the current political climate. Molly O’Toole is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, working on “The Route,” a nonfiction book on global migration through the Americas to the United States, for Crown Publishing, a Penguin Random House imprint, and developing an accompanying podcast. She most recently was an immigration and security reporter for The Los Angeles Times, and a fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, George Washington University, and the Logan Nonfiction Program. She has also taught at Cornell University and the Poynter Institute. She previously was a senior reporter at Foreign Policy and The Atlantic’s Defense One, and an editor at The Huffington Post.
From Latin America, West Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, Ms. O’Toole has written and worked for outlets such as The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Newsweek, The Intercept, the Associated Press, Reuters, and more. She was awarded the first-ever Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting in 2020 with This American Life and Emily Green. Her work has also been recognized by the Livingston Awards, the National Press Club, the Charles Rappleye Investigative Award, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and the Silvers Grants for Work in Progress, among others. She is a graduate of Cornell and New York University, and is based in Washington, D.C., but she will always be a Californian.
Victoria Rietig is head of the Center for Migration at the DGAP. She has twenty years of experience working on migration, asylum, and refugee issues. She is the author of dozens of publications, has given hundreds of lectures and trainings on migration-related topics, and regularly comments on current migration issues in leading German and international media. She has conducted research in North and West Africa, the Middle East, and the Western Balkans, as well as Central and South America.
Before building up and leading DGAP’s Migration Program from 2019 to 2024, Ms. Rietig advised government agencies and foundations in Europe and the United States as an expert on migration policies. Prior to that, she worked as an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, DC, and a consultant at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research in New York.
She graduated from Harvard University with a master’s degree in public policy with a focus on human trafficking and forced migration. She also completed a Magister at the Freie Universität Berlin with a focus on migration and integration.

Kamingespräch mit Frau Dr. Emily Haber
2025-01-22 12:00 - 13:30
Die American Council on Germany und die Freunde des American Council on Germany veranstalten am 22. Januar 2025 um 18.00 Uhr am CMS ein Kamingespräch mit Dr. Emily Haber, Botschafterin der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in den Vereinigten Staaten (ehem.), moderiert von Dr. Steven E. Sokol, Präsident und CEO des American Council on Germany. Lebensläufe:
Dr. Emily Haber vertrat von 2018 bis 2023 als Botschafterin die Bundesrepublik Deutschland in den USA. Die Diplomatin war die erste Frau in diesem Amt. Sie war Staatssekretärin im Bundesministerium des Innern und Staatssekretärin des Auswärtigen Amtes.
Dr. Steven E. Sokol ist der Präsident und CEO des American Council on Germany. Vorher war er Präsident und CEO des World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh. In seiner früheren Berufslaufbahn war Dr. Sokol stellvertretender Direktor des Aspen Institute Berlin, Leiter der Abteilung Projektmanagement beim Internationalen Konversionszentrum Bonn GmbH (BICC) und Programmbeauftragter im Berliner Büro des German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Mobility and Borders in Europe
2025-01-23 11:00 - 12:00
Europe is a place of free movement among nations – or is it? The Schengen area, which was established in 1985 and today encompasses twenty-nine European countries, allows people, goods, and capital to cross borders without restraint. Schengen transformed European life, advancing both a democratic project of transnational citizenship and a neoliberal project of international free trade. But the right of free movement always excluded non-Europeans, especially migrants of color from former colonies of the Schengen states.
Join us for a virtual discussion on January 23 with Prof. Dr. Kiran Klaus Patel, Chair of Modern History at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (LMU), and Young Leader alum Dr. Isaac Stanley-Becker, a National Security Reporter at the Washington Post and author of Europe without Borders. They will discuss the ideas behind the creation of the Schengen area and the opportunities and challenges it has created. Prof. Dr. Kiran Klaus Patel holds the Chair of Modern History at Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (LMU) and is the Director of Project House Europe. Before joining LMU, he held chairs at Maastricht University in the Netherlands (2011-2019) and the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2007-2011), and an assistant professorship at Humboldt University in Berlin (2002-2007). He has been (inter alia) a visiting fellow/professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales in Paris, the Free University of Berlin, Freiburg University, Harvard University, the London School of Economics, Sciences Po in Paris, and the University of Oxford. His teaching and research focuses on issues of European and US American history. Comparative, transnational, and global approaches are prominently featured in his work.
Dr. Isaac Stanley-Becker (2024 ACG Young Leader) is a National Security Reporter at the Washington Post. He has reported from across Europe and the United States. He received his PhD from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes scholar. His book Europe without Borders was published this month.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-01-27 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts discussions with a journalist based in Germany on the topics that are making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, January 27 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Anja Wehler-Schöck, International Editor for Der Tagesspiegel. Anja Wehler-Schöck joined the Editorial Board of Der Tagesspiegel as the International Editor in January 2025. She has been Head of International Politics at Der Tagesspiegel since August 2022. Prior to that, she worked as editor-in-chief of the IPG Journal, a debate platform for issues of international and European politics. She previously worked as a social affairs officer at the German Embassy in Washington and headed the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s office for Jordan and Iraq in Amman from 2012 to 2017.

Where do we go from here? The Transatlantic Relationship in 2025
2025-01-27 18:00 - 19:30
Join the American Council on Germany and the Goethe-Institut for the latest installment in our Foreign Correspondent Unplugged series, which delves into current political debates on both sides of the Atlantic. Journalists McKay Coppins, Staff Writer at The Atlantic, and Rieke Havertz, International Correspondent for ZEIT ONLINE, will discuss what European leaders and policymakers are monitoring, will explore the potential shifts in transatlantic relations, and will forescast how President Trump’s foreign policies may impact European economies, security, diplomacy, and broader international alliances. The event will be moderated by the President of the American Council on Germany, Dr. Steven E. Sokol. McKay Coppins is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers politics, religion, and national affairs. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Romney: A Reckoning, a biography of Mitt Romney published by Scribner in 2023, and The Wilderness, a 2015 book about the battle for the future of the Republican Party. A former visiting fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, Mr. Coppins has won the Aldo Beckman Award from the White House Correspondents Association for his coverage of the Trump presidency and the Wilbur Award for religion journalism. He lives near Washington, D.C., with his wife and children.
Rieke Havertz, International Correspondent for ZEIT ONLINE, currently based in Washington D.C. She writes about current developments in and from various countries, with a focus on the USA, as well as about German foreign policy. Ms. Havertz also co-hosts the podcast “OK, America?”. She was previously ZEIT ONLINE’s U.S. correspondent in Washington, D.C., from August to January 2022 and then again from August 2022 to February 2023. She has been at ZEIT ONLINE since May 2016, initially as editorial manager. She previously served as head of department at taz.de. She studied journalism and American studies at the University of Leipzig and Ohio University.
Dr. Steven E. Sokol is the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany. Previously, he served as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and prior to that he was the Vice President and Director of Programs at the American Council on Germany. He holds a Doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University as well as an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. He has also studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universität in Berlin. Dr. Sokol is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on several advisory boards. He was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) for his work to strengthen German-American relations.

Democracy in the United States and Germany: Resilient or Fragile?
2025-01-29 18:00 - 19:30
1014, the ACG, and the Goethe-Institut are hosting a discussion and reception with Dr. Alexander Görlach and Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook.

The state of Western democracies has been a central theme in the U.S. election and is also significant in Germany, where the governing coalition has collapsed and securing ruling majorities has become increasingly difficult. With a new administration in Washington and snap elections looming in Germany, this discussion, part of the “Let’s Talk Democracy” series, will examine the current trends: Are our democracies resilient to the threats posed by, inter alia, populist movements? Can we take our liberal democracies for granted, or do we need to protect increasingly fragile systems?

Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook is Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor at the Bertelsmann Foundation in Berlin. She served previously as CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Ms. Clüver Ashbrook was executive director of the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts for ten years. The project, which she co-founded, addresses 21st-century foreign policy challenges through research by international leaders in academia and diplomacy as well as teaching conflict research and prevention. Beginning in 2018, Ms. Clüver Ashbrook also directed a research program on Europe and transatlantic relations. Previously, she served on the management board of the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels and worked as both a consultant and senior journalist at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in France and China, among other countries. She began her career as a television journalist at CNN International in Atlanta and London.
Ms. Clüver Ashbrook contributes to international publications, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as leading German media on transatlantic relations – especially trade and security policy – and German foreign and digital policy. Additionally, she advises foreign ministries in Europe and South America on their digital strategy. She received her undergraduate honors degree in international relations and French civilization from Brown University, a master’s degree in European studies from the London School of Economics, and a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School where she was a Hauser Fellow in Non-Profit Management.
Dr. Alexander Görlach is an adjunct professor at NYU Gallatin School, where he teaches democratic theory. Before that, he held various positions as a visiting scholar and fellow at Harvard University, as well as Cambridge and Oxford Universities in the United Kingdom. He is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York and a senior advisor to the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles. He holds a doctorate in Comparative Religion and a doctorate in Linguistics. His academic interests include democratic theory, politics and religion, and theories of secularism, pluralism, and cosmopolitanism. In the academic year 2017-18, he was a visiting scholar at National Taiwan University and City University Hong Kong. Since then, he has focused on the rise of China and what it means for the democracies in East Asia.
Dr. Görlach is an honorary Professor of Ethics and Theology at Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany. He is the Founder of the debate magazine The European, which he also ran as its editor-in-chief from 2009 to 2015. Today, he is an op-ed contributor to the New York Times, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and the South China Morning Post. He is a columnist for the business magazines Wirtschaftswoche, Deutsche Welle, and Focus Online. He is a frequent commentator on German News Channel WELT TV.

Germany at a Crossroads? Navigating Germany’s Political Landscape Ahead of the Election
2025-01-30 08:00 - 09:30
On January 30, the ACG will host a breakfast briefing with Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor at the Bertelsmann Foundation.
Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook is Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor at the Bertelsmann Foundation in Berlin. She served previously as CEO of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Ms. Clüver Ashbrook was executive director of the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts for ten years. The project, which she co-founded, addresses 21st-century foreign policy challenges through research by international leaders in academia and diplomacy as well as teaching conflict research and prevention. Beginning in 2018, Ms. Clüver Ashbrook also directed a research program on Europe and transatlantic relations. Previously, she served on the management board of the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels and worked as both a consultant and senior journalist at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in France and China, among other countries. She began her career as a television journalist at CNN International in Atlanta and London.
Ms. Clüver Ashbrook contributes to international publications, such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, as well as leading German media on transatlantic relations – especially trade and security policy – and German foreign and digital policy. Additionally, she advises foreign ministries in Europe and South America on their digital strategy. She received her undergraduate honors degree in international relations and French civilization from Brown University, a master’s degree in European studies from the London School of Economics, and a master’s degree in public administration from the Harvard Kennedy School where she was a Hauser Fellow in Non-Profit Management.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-02-03 09:00 - 10:00
The ACG regularly hosts discussions with a journalist based in Germany on the topics that are making the headlines and shaping political discourse. Join us on Monday, February 3 at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with award-winning journalist and ACG fellow Vladimir Balzer. Vladimir Balzer is an award-winning journalist and moderator at Deutschlandfunk Kultur. He grew up in Leipzig and studied German, art history, and journalism in Dublin, Venice, and Leipzig. He studied abroad in Italy and the United States. He began his career as a presenter, reporter, and editor at Deutschlandradio and MDR. Mr. Balzer hosts, among other programs, the daily programs “Fazit – Kultur vom Tage” and “Studio 9” on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In 2022, he was selected to be a Kellen Fellow by the American Council on Germany.

Hot Topics, Cold Realties - Trade, Tariffs, and a Shifting Global Economy
2025-02-03 11:00 - 12:00
The current state of the global economy is marked by significant uncertainty and change, driven by geopolitical tensions, evolving supply chains, and shifting economic priorities. After years of globalized trade liberalization, protectionist ideas have resurfaced, with possible trade wars and tariffs that could affect industries and consumers worldwide.
Join the ACG and 1014 for a virtual discussion on these protectionist trends and their impact on the global economy with Benn Steil, Director of International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and Rolf Langhammer, former Vice President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Rolf J. Langhammer was Vice-President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy from October 1997 until August 2012 and Professor at the Kiel Institute. He has remained active at the Institute. In addition, he has been an Honorary Professor in of International Economic Relations and Development Economics at the Faculty of Economics, Business Administration, and Social Sciences, at Kiel University since November 1995 and a Professor of Development Economics and International Trade at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management in Vallendar/Koblenz from 2013-2016.
Prof. Langhammer has served as a consultant to a number of international institutions (EU, World Bank, OECD, UNIDO, ADB), as well as to the German ministries of economic affairs and economic cooperation. Between 1995 and 2007, he was a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Federal Ministry of Economic Co-operation and Development. His research issues cover international trade patterns, trade policies, regional integration, and international capital flows. He has published in professional journals and contributed to many volumes of conference proceedings.
Benn Steil is a Senior Fellow and the Director of International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He is the lead writer of the Council’s Geo-Graphics economics blog and the creator of nine web-based interactives tracking Global Monetary Policy, Global Inflation, Global Imbalances, Global Growth, Global Trade, Global Energy, Sovereign Risk, China’s Belt and Road, and Central Bank Currency Swaps. He also writes a monthly column for Barron’s.
Dr. Steil has written and spoken widely on international finance, monetary policy, financial markets, and economic and diplomatic history. He has testified before the U.S. Senate, House, and CFTC. His most recent book, The World That Wasn’t: Henry Wallace and the Fate of the American Century, was named in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Financial Times “Best Books of 2024” lists.
