American Council On Germany

Mobility and Borders in Europe
2025-01-23 11:00 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
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.

Snap Elections in Germany and the Fate of Europe
2025-02-05 18:00 - 20:00
The American Council on Germany, NYU’s Center for European and Mediterranean Studies, and Deutsches Haus at NYU present “Snap Elections in Germany and the Fate of Europe,” a moderated conversation among Hans Kundnani (Boston University/London School of Economics) Rahsaan Maxwell (NYU), Joyce Mushaben (Georgetown University), and Steve Sokol (ACG).
At the end of last year, the coalition of the SPD, the FDP, and the Greens, which had been in power in Germany under the leadership of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) since 2021, fell apart, leading to snap federal elections that are scheduled for February 23. The coalition partners had been increasingly at odds as they navigated complex domestic and international issues. Though the collapse of this three-party alliance did not come as a surprise to many observers it happened at a time of intense political challenges for Germany, the European Union, and the world at large. Given these circumstances, the question of how the German electorate will vote next month and what kind of new government this choice will bring about is of keen importance. The result of the German elections will, however, be hugely influential not only for the future of Europe but for the transatlantic relationship as well, which will also be shaped by the incoming U.S. government. This conversation will shed light on the factors that led to the demise of the coalition government, consider possible outcomes of the upcoming German election, and speculate about the fate of Europe (and beyond). Hans Kundnani is an Open Society Ideas Workshop fellow, an adjunct professor at Boston University and a visiting professor in practice at the London School of Economics. He was previously the director of the Europe programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) in London, a senior Transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He has also been a visiting fellow at the Remarque Institute at New York York University and a Bosch Public Policy Fellow at the Transatlantic Academy in Washington, D.C. and has taught at the Collège d’Europe and at New York University. Hans is the author of three books: Eurowhiteness. Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project (London: Hurst, 2023); The Paradox of German Power (London/New York: Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2014), which has been translated into German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish; and Utopia or Auschwitz. Germany’s 1968 Generation and the Holocaust (London/New York: Hurst/Columbia University Press, 2009). He studied German and philosophy at Oxford University and journalism at Columbia University in New York, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He tweets @hanskundnani.
Rahsaan Maxwell (moderator) is a Professor in the Department of Politics at New York University, whose research focuses on a range of issues related to diversity, political behavior, national boundaries and immigration, mostly in Western Europe. He is currently writing a book on support for immigration in Europe.
Joyce Marie Mushaben received her Ph. D. from Indiana University in 1981. A Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Comparative Politics (Emerita) at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, she is now an Adjunct Faculty member in the BMW Center for German & European Studies at Georgetown University and serves on the International Advisory Board of Gender5 Plus, an EU-oriented feminist think-tank. Having spent over 18 years living and researching in Germany, her early work focused on new social movements (peace, ecology, feminism, anti-nuclear protests, neo-Nazi activism), German national identity and generational change. She then moved on to European Union developments involving women’s leadership, gender policies, citizenship, migration and asylum policies, Euro-Islam debates and comparative welfare state reforms. Her books and monograph publications include Identity without a Hinterland? Continuity and Change in National Consciousness in the German Democratic Republic, 1949-1989 (1993); The Changing Faces of Citizenship: Integration and Mobilization among Ethnic Minorities in Germany (2008); Gendering the European Union: New Responses to Old Democratic Deficits (with Gabriele Abels) (2012); Becoming Madam Chancellor: Angela Merkel and the Berlin Republic (2017); and What remains? The Dialectical Identities of Eastern Germans (2023). Her current book-in-progress is tentatively titled, Becoming Madam Europe: Ursula von der Leyen and the Pursuit of Gender Equality (forthcoming 2025).
Steven E. Sokol has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. 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. Earlier in his career, Dr. Sokol served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmbH (BICC), and a Program Officer in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Earlier in his career, he also was a Program Manager at the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and was a paralegal at Fulbright & Jaworski. 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 serves on several non-profit boards and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) for his work to strengthen German-American relations.

The Road Ahead: Implications of Germany's Federal Election
2025-02-06 11:30 - 13:00
On February 23rd, 2025, Germany will hold a federal election to elect the 630 members of the 21st Bundestag. Originally scheduled for September 2025, the election was advanced due to the collapse of the governing coalition in late 2024. this election is pivotal, with significant potential to reshape Germany’y political landscape and influence its domestic and foreign policies.
The election’s outcome will influence Germany’s policy direction on critical issues such as immigration, economic strategy, and climate change. Internationally, Germany’s stance within the European Union, its foreign policy, and its role in global economic and environmental initiatives could undergo significant shifts based on the new government’s composition and priorities. As Germany approaches this pivotal election, the decisions made by its electorate will have lasting implications on both domestic policies and international relations. Understanding the platforms, potential coalitions, and key issues at stake is essential for anticipating the road ahead for Germany. Join us for a discussion with Dr. Steven E Sokol, President and CEO of the American Council on Germany.
Steven E. Sokol has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. 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. Prior to this, Dr. Sokol served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmBH (BICC), and a Program Officer in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Earlier in his career, he also was a Program Manager at the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and was a paralegal at Fulbright & Jaworski.
Dr. Sokol 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 Free Universität in Berlin. Dr. Sokol serves on several non-profit boards and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) for his work to strengthen German-American relations.

What’s at Stake when Germany Votes?
2025-02-07 12:00 - 13:30
The American Council on Germany is having a discussion with Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Executive Director/CEO of Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V. (Environmental Action Germany) on the topic of “What’s at Stake when Germany Votes?” Sascha Müller-Kraenner has served as Executive Director/CEO of Deutsche Umwelthilfe e.V., DUH (Environmental Action Germany) since January 2015. Environmental Action Germany is an independent non-profit organization founded in 1975 that focuses on environmental and consumer protection. It is a leading environmental and consumer advocacy organization that works mostly at the German state, national, and European levels.
Mr. Müller-Kraenner is also a founding partner and board member of Ecologic Institute, a non-profit applied environmental policy research institute with offices in Berlin, Brussels, and Washington, DC. Between 2007 and 2014, he held various positions with The Nature Conservancy, and earlier in his career, he worked for the Heinrich-Böll Foundation.
Mr. Müller-Kraenner studied Philosophy in Munich and graduated with honors in Biology and Public Law from the University of Bayreuth.

The European Reaction to the Trump Administration’s Economic Policy
2025-02-11 08:00 - 09:30
The ACG will host a breakfast briefing with Julian Heißler, U.S. Correspondent for WirtschaftsWoche. Julian Heißler is based in Washington DC and writes for the German weekly Wirtschaftswoche. Before his move to the United States he covered German national politics in Berlin for a variety of news outlets. He is a graduate of Freie University Berlin and Hamburg Media School. In addition to his journalistic work, he published a book in 2023 that deals with the positive and negative perceptions of the American concept of freedom titled “Traum oder Albtraum.”

Understanding the Foreign Policy Priorities of Trump 2.0
2025-02-13 18:00 - 20:00
The American Council on Germany and ZIRNGIBL Rechtsanwälte Partnerschaft mbB will host a discussion and reception in Munich with Dr. Kenneth Weinstein, President Emeritus and Japan Chair, Hudson Institute, and Dr. Anna Sauerbrey, Foreign Editor, Die Zeit. Dr. Kenneth Weinstein served as the President and CEO of Hudson from 2011 through 2020, after joining the institute in 1991. In March 2020, he was nominated by President Trump to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Japan, but his nomination was not confirmed by the Senate before the end of the administration. Widely respected in the diplomatic and policy arenas, Dr. Weinstein has written on international affairs for leading publications in the United States, Europe, and Asia. From 2017 until 2020, Dr. Weinstein chaired the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the oversight body for US Agency for Global Media, and was chair of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting, and the Open Technology Fund.
Dr. Weinstein earned his B.A. in General Studies in the Humanities from the University of Chicago, D.E.A. in Soviet and Eastern European Studies from Sciences-Po Paris, and Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University. Dr. Weinstein has been decorated with a knighthood in Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. Dr. Anna Sauerbrey is the Foreign Editor at the German largest weekly newspaper, Die Zeit. Before assuming this position, she was Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Der Tagesspiegel, a daily newspaper based in Berlin. She has written about German politics in The New York Times and comments on German and international politics on public German radio and television programs. She has also appeared on CNN and the BBC world service. She is the author of Machtwechsel. Wie eine neue Politikergeneration das Land verändert (Rowohlt Berlin, 2022) a book on the generation of German policymakers succeeding Angela Merkel.
Dr. Sauerbrey received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Mainz in 2009. She has also studied Political Science and Journalism. She was an Arthur F. Burns Fellow with the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2013 and has extensively written about transatlantic relations and U.S. domestic politics since.

New Governments; New Priorities? The Future of Transatlantic Relations
2025-02-14 02:00 - 03:30
On February 14, the ACG and KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft will host a breakfast briefing with Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, Retired Commanding General of United States Army Europe, and Dr. Jana Puglierin, Senior Policy Fellow and Head of European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) Berlin. The discussion will be 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. Based in Frankfurt, he is currently a Senior Advisor to Human Rights First. General Hodges has also served in a variety of Joint and Army Staff positions, including Tactics Instructor; Chief of Plans, 2nd Infantry Division, in Korea; Aide-de-Camp to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe; Chief of Staff, XVIII Airborne Corps; Director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Coordination Cell on the Joint Staff; Chief of Legislative Liaison for the United States Army; and Commander of NATO Allied Land Command (İzmir, Turkey). After his first assignment as an Infantry Lieutenant in Garlstedt, Germany, he commanded Infantry units at the Company, Battalion, and Brigade levels in the 101st Airborne Division, including Command of the First Brigade Combat Team “Bastogne” of the 101st Airborne Division in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003-2004). His other operational assignments include Chief of Operations for Multi-National Corps – Iraq in Operation Iraqi Freedom (2005-2006) and Director of Operations, Regional Command South, in Kandahar, Afghanistan (2009-2010).
Dr. Jana Puglierin is a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and has been the head of its Berlin office since January 2020. She headed the Alfred von Oppenheim Centre for European Policy Studies at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) from December 2015 to December 2019, and was a research fellow with its Berlin Future Forum from September 2013 to November 2015. Before joining DGAP, she worked as an adviser for a member of the Bundestag on disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation, as well as German and European foreign and security policy.
Ambassador John B. Emerson (moderator) was named Chairman of the American Council on Germany at the Council’s Annual Members Meeting on January 17, 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.

Financial Stability in Germany: Which Challenges Lie Ahead?
2025-02-18 08:30 - 10:00
The ACG and the Deutsche Bundesbank will host a breakfast briefing with Dr. Kirstin Hubrich, Deputy Director General for Financial Stability of the Deutsche Bundesbank, in conversation with Tara Hariharan, Managing Director of Global Macro Research at NWI Management and ACG Board Member. Dr. Kirstin Hubrich has been the Deputy Director General Financial Stability at the Deutsche Bundesbank since July 1, 2023. Prior to this appointment she served as the Head of the International Economics Section at the Austrian Central Bank and as a Member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Eurosystem. Previously, Dr. Hubrich served at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve Board) from 2015 to 2022. She joined the Federal Reserve Board as a Principal Economist in the Macroeconomic and Quantitative Studies Section, Division Research and Statistics, and was Chief of the Prices and Wages Section in the Research and Statistics Division. In the Program Direction of Research and Statistics the focus of her responsibilities was on the interaction of the financial system and the macroeconomy, financial projections and financial stability. She has also served as the Federal Reserve Board Representative in the G7 Working Group on Digitalization.
Prior to the appointment to the Federal Reserve Board, Dr. Hubrich held various positions at the European Central Bank (ECB) over 14 years, namely in the Financial Research Division of the Research Department as well as the Monetary Policy Strategy Division in the Monetary Policy Department. Before joining the ECB she has held positions as research fellow and economist at the Dutch Central Bank. Dr. Hubrich received her Ph.D. from the Humboldt University Berlin
Tara Hariharan is Managing Director of Global Macro Research and Head of Macro Research at NWI Management LP, a New York-based emerging markets-focused hedge fund. She regularly presents her assessments of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) economy and US-China relations to senior U.S. policymakers and International Monetary Fund representatives.
Ms. Hariharan is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a Millennium Leadership fellow at the Atlantic Council. She was a 2014 German Marshall Fund Marshall Memorial fellow, a 2016 American Council on Germany (ACG) young leader, and a 2022 Economic Club of New York fellow. In 2022, she was elected to ACG’s board. She is also a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Chief Economists’ Committee. Elected to the Inter-American Dialogue in 2021, she regularly contributes to its publications on trade flows and the PRC’s influence on Latin America.
Ms. Hariharan holds a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in anthropology from Princeton University and a graduate certificate in international relations from Harvard Extension School.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-02-18 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 Tuesday, February 18 at 9:00 am ET for a special edition of the Kaffeepause following the Munich Security Conference with the Political Editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Stefan Kornelius. Stefan Kornelius is the Political Editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Previously, he served as Foreign Editor of the paper for nearly 20 years. In his reporting career, he has covered Germany’s Christian Democratic Party (CDU), the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl, and defense issues in Europe. He served as Berlin Bureau Chief, and from 1996 to 1999 he was the paper’s Washington correspondent. Prior to that, he was a correspondent in Bonn.
His biography of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, entitled Angela Merkel, the Chancellor and her World, has been translated into 13 languages. Mr. Kornelius is a graduate of the Henri-Nannen-Journalistenschule and studied in Bonn and at the London School of Economics.

Post-MSC Readout
2025-02-18 12:00 - 14:00
The American Council on Germany and the Freundeskreis des American Council on Germany will host a discussion and reception with Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook, Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor at the Bertelsmann Stiftung and Benjamin Rohé, CEO and Co-Founder of Monarch, moderated by Sonja Gillert Head of Audio at “Welt.” 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.
Benjamin Rohé is dedicated to drive transformation and change, with a focus on European digital sovereignty in security, defense, and innovation. After founding his first company at 17, he co-founded as CEO the company MONARCH in 2021, working alongside industry leaders such as Dr. Tom Enders, Gerhard Schindler, Prof. Dr. Stefan Kirsten, James Tucker CMG OBE, and Dr. Sandro Gaycken to tackle security challenges in an evolving world. MONARCH is an official partner of the Munich Security Conference.
With over 25 years of experience, he is a regular speaker at universities and global conferences on corporate innovation, digital change, and resilience. His work has been featured in major publications such as Business Insider, WirtschaftsWoche, Huffington Post, Manager Magazin, and Handelsblatt. Benjamin Rohé is a 2011 ACG young leader and chairman of the ACG Freundeskreis.
Sonja Gillert is the head of audio and podcast host for WELT. Previously, she served as an editor in the paper’s foreign policy department in Berlin. In 2015, she spent three months in China with the Media Ambassador China Germany Program. In 2017 she was selected to attend the two-month Arthur F. Burns Fellowship for Journalists to conduct research in the United States. In 2023, she completed an ACG Kellen Fellowship during which researched the influence of school boards and politics.
Ms. Gillert attended the journalist training program at Axel Springer Academy in Berlin and formerly worked as a freelance journalist at three of Germany’s major radio stations. She studied in Bonn and St. Andrews, Scotland, and earned her MA in Political Science and German Literature in 2009 at Bonn University. She currently sits on the Board of the Freunde des American Council on Germany e.V.

German Federal Election 2025
2025-02-23 11:00 - 15:00
The Goethe-Institut, the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York, and the American Council on Germany warmly invite you to join us to follow the results of the German federal election on February 23.
Program:

11:00 AM: Doors Open – Enjoy coffee, snacks, and the opportunity to network.
12:00 PM: Election Results – Live broadcast of the latest results from Germany (in German).
Following the Results: Panel Discussion – An in-depth analysis of the results and their implications for Germany, Europe, and transatlantic relations (in English).
3:00 PM: Event Ends

Panelists:
Sheri Berman is a Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, specializing in European politics, democracy, and populism. Her acclaimed book Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe explores the history of political systems across the continent.
Hans Kundnani is a Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe and a leading expert on European politics and Germany’s role in the EU. He is the author of The Paradox of German Power.
Christina Morina is a historian specializing in modern European history and political ideologies. Currently a visiting professor at The New School, she is also a professor at Bielefeld University. She is the author of Tausend Aufbrüche. Die Deutschen und ihre Demokratie seit den 1980er Jahren.
Moderator: Steven E. Sokol is the President of the American Council on Germany and a prominent voice in transatlantic dialogue.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-02-24 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, February 24, at 9:00 a.m. ET for a Kaffeepause following the German federal elections with 2018 Kellen Fellow Dr. Anna Sauerbrey, Foreign Editor for Die Zeit. Dr. Anna Sauerbrey is the Foreign Editor at the German largest weekly newspaper, Die Zeit. Before assuming this position, she was Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Der Tagesspiegel, a daily newspaper based in Berlin. She has written about German politics in The New York Times and comments on German and international politics on public German radio and television programs. She has also appeared on CNN and the BBC world service. She is the author of Machtwechsel. Wie eine neue Politikergeneration das Land verändert (Rowohlt Berlin, 2022) a book on the generation of German policymakers succeeding Angela Merkel.
Dr. Sauerbrey received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Mainz in 2009. She has also studied Political Science and Journalism. She was an Arthur F. Burns Fellow with the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2013 and has extensively written about transatlantic relations and U.S. domestic politics since. In 2018, she was awarded an Anna-Maria and Stephen M. Kellen Fellowship for Berlin-based Journalists by the American Council on Germany.

German Foreign and Security Policy After the Election
2025-02-25 08:00 - 09:30
The ACG will host a breakfast briefing with Dominik Mutter, Security Policy Director of the Federal Foreign Office.
Dominik Mutter is the Security Policy Director of the Federal Foreign Office. In 2022 and 2023, he was lead coordinator and editor of the interagency team tasked with drafting Germany’s first National Security Strategy. Prior to assuming his current position in March 2022, he served as Security Policy Director at the Ministry of Defense and as Head of Division for Security Policy and bilateral relations at the Chancellery.
He holds a Master’s Degree in Modern History, American Studies, and Political Science from Freiburg University.

Kaffeepause: Special Edition
2025-02-27 11:00 - 12:00
Join us for a “Special Edition” of our regular Kaffeepause following the German federal elections with Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, former Foreign Editor at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Nadine Lindner, Correspondent with Deutschlandradio. Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger was the Foreign Editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. His writings deal especially with the United States, European, transatlantic, and international politics. He holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science, Economics, and American Studies from Frankfurt University. He joined the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s leading national daily, in 1986, and served in various capacities, as European, International, and Editorial Page Editor. Mr. Frankenberger was a Member of the Trilateral Commission and of the Scientific Council of the Institute for European Politics in Berlin. He also served on the Advisory Board of the Federal Academy for Security Policy in Berlin and is associated with several organizations that deal with the transatlantic relationship.
Nadine Lindner has been a Correspondent in the Berlin studio of “Deutschlandradio” since early 2016 and is responsible, among other things, for covering the AfD and transport policy. Before that, she was a Correspondent in the Free State of Saxony for two and a half years and followed the rise of Pegida there. She studied Political Science, Journalism, and African Studies in Leipzig and discovered her enthusiasm for radio there at the training station “mephisto 97.6.” After graduating from university, she worked as a freelance journalist for “MDR sputnik” and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as well as Deutschlandradio.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-03-03 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, March 3, at 9:00 a.m. ET for a Kaffeepause with Paul-Anton Krüger, Editor for Der Spiegel. Paul-Anton Krüger has been an Editor at SPIEGEL’s capital city office since January 2025. He was the Parliamentary Correspondent in the Berlin Bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung from September 2021 to December 2024. He previously reported on political affairs and served as Deputy Head of the Foreign Policy Department, focusing on the Middle East and international security for three years. Before that, he spent four years in Cairo as a correspondent covering large parts of the Arab world and Iran.
After graduating from the Alte Landesschule in Korbach, he studied journalism in Berlin and Munich. In August 2005, he joined the Süddeutsche Zeitung as a volunteer, worked as an editor from 2008, and as head of the foreign policy department from 2011. In the fall of 2007, Mr. Krüger was a guest editor at the Chicago Tribune as part of the Arthur F. Burns Fellowship, the German-American journalism scholarship of the International Journalism Programs e.V.

After the Elections in Germany and the United States: The Path Forward in Ukraine
2025-03-03 12:30 - 14:00
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Annett Meiritz, Washington Correspondent, Handelsblatt. Annett Meiritz is the Washington Correspondent for Germany’s leading business, trade, and finance daily Handelsblatt. She covers the U.S. Administration and Congress, usually from an economic angle. Previously she worked as Parliamentary Correspondent for Germany’s leading news portal Spiegel Online, based in Berlin. She holds a B.A. degree in Modern History and Media Science and was educated to be a Journalist at the Berlin Journalism School.

What German Leadership Means for Europe
2025-03-04 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion and luncheon with Lt. General Ben Hodges, former Commanding General of the U.S. Army Europe.
This event is only open to ACG members.
Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges is the former Commanding General of US Army Europe (2014-2017). 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 Defence of Europe. Lt. Gen. Hodges has a regular presence in US and international media where he offers insight and analysis on NATO, US 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 non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in the United States. Before to joining Human Rights First, Lt. Gen. Hodges held the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
A native of Quincy, Florida, Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges graduated from the United States Military Academy in May 1980 and was commissioned in the Infantry. He lives in Frankfurt, Germany.

Analyzing the German Elections: What Comes Next?
2025-03-05 12:00 - 13:00
Join the ACG and the Pacific Council for a virtual event analyzing the implications of Germany’s federal election on February 23, 2025. This election, prompted by the collapse of Chancellor Scholz’s coalition government, is poised to reshape German politics. Our expert speakers, Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller, Director of the Center on the United States at Brookings, and Peter S. Rashish, Vice President and Director of the Geoeconomics Program at the American-German Institute will examine what the election means for Germany, the United States, and the global community. ACG President Dr. Steven E. Sokol will moderate the discussion. Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller 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.
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. From 1988 to 1989, she was a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School. She has also been a GMF campus fellow at Grinnell College in Iowa, a Woodrow Wilson Center public policy scholar in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Remarque Forum — a conference series of the Remarque Institute at New York University.
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).
Peter S. Rashish is Vice President and Director of the Geoeconomics Program at AGI. He also is the author of The Wider Atlantic blog. Before joining AGI, Mr. Rashish has served as Vice President for Europe and Eurasia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he spearheaded the Chamber’s advocacy ahead of the launch of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Previously, Mr. Rashish was a Senior Advisor for Europe at McLarty Associates, Executive Vice President of the European Institute, and a staff member and consultant at the International Energy Agency, the World Bank, UNCTAD, the Atlantic Council, the Bertelsmann Foundation, and the German Marshall Fund.
Mr. Rashish has testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade and the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia and has advised three U.S. presidential campaigns. He has been a featured speaker at the Munich Security Conference, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and the Salzburg Global Seminar and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Jean Monnet Institute in Paris and a Senior Advisor to the European Policy Centre in Brussels. His commentaries have been published in The New York Times, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, and The National Interest, and he has appeared on PBS, CNBC, CNN, and NPR.
He earned a BA from Harvard College and an MPhil in international relations from Oxford University. He speaks French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
Dr. Steven E. Sokol (moderator) has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. 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. Prior to this, Dr. Sokol served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmbH (BICC), and a Program Officer in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Earlier in his career, he also was a Program Manager at the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and was a paralegal at Fulbright & Jaworski.
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 serves on several non-profit boards and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) for his work to strengthen German-American relations.

The Road Ahead: Implications of Germany's Federal Election
2025-03-06 11:30 - 13:30
The American Council on Germany and the Atlanta Council on International Relations will host a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Steven E. Sokol, President & CEO of the American Council on Germany.
The cost to attend this event is $40 for ACG/ACIR members, and $55 for non-members of either organization.
Please REGISTER HERE by March 3 Dr. Steven E. Sokol has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. 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. Prior to this, Dr. Sokol served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmBH (BICC), and a Program Officer in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Earlier in his career, he also was a Program Manager at the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and was a paralegal at Fulbright & Jaworski.
Dr. Sokol 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 Free Universität in Berlin. Dr. Sokol serves on several non-profit boards and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) for his work to strengthen German-American relations.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-03-17 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, March 17, at 9:00 a.m. 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.

Innovators and Investors Stammtisch
2025-03-17 18:00 - 20:00
The NYC “Innovators and Investors Stammtisch” series is a new initiative bringing together German and U.S. professionals for informal, engaging conversations over dinner. Inspired by the German tradition of the Stammtisch, this regular gathering fosters networking, knowledge sharing, and transatlantic exchange in a relaxed setting. Each event will feature rotating guest speakers offering unique insights, creating a space for meaningful connections between leaders and innovators from both countries. The Launch Event will be a larger gathering to kick-off to the series.

Rising Global Trade Tensions: China and the German-American Relationship
2025-03-19 12:00 - 13:30
The ACG will host a discussion with Thomas König, Director China at the German Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DIHK) and 2024 ACG McCloy Fellow on Global Trends.

Thomas König is Director China at the German Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DIHK), Europe’s largest trade association. He is co-author of the book “How to make it in China / “So Schafft Man China” (now in its third edition” and “China – Mastering business and everyday life / China – Business & Alltag meistern.” He has years of hands-on experience in China, including work at the European Chamber of Commerce in China and the world’s largest German Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, which serves over 1,600 member companies. Previously, Mr. König served as Asia Program Coordinator at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in London and Paris and developed training programs for Chinese UN diplomats-in-waiting at the United Nations Institute of Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva.
Mr. König is currently a Taiwan-US-Europe Policy Program Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and a McCloy Fellow on Global Trends from the American Council on Germany and is researching the nexus of US relations with China and Germany in Washington D.C. in Spring 2025. He holds degrees from Yale University and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and completed a bilingual semester at Peking University. Mr. König is currently teaching as a guest lecturer at the Center for Cultural Studies on Science and Technology in China at the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin).

The Future of Artificial Intelligence and Technology
2025-03-20 11:00 - 12:00
Join the ACG and the Aspen Institute for an insightful virtual discussion on March 20 between German and U.S. state legislators to highlight the role of states, cities, and local governments in fostering innovation, addressing AI-related challenges, and promoting cross-border cooperation. The conversation will include Senator Lashrecse Aird (D), Senate of Virginia, Nina Eisenhardt (Alliance 90/The Greens), State Parliament of Hesse, and Franziska Müller-Rech (FDP), State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Senator Lashrecse D. Aird (D) was sworn into the Virginia State Senate in 2024. She previously served three terms (2016-2022) in the Virginia House of Delegates where she held the distinction as the youngest woman ever elected to that body. Senator Aird helped Virginia make history with the passage of Breonna’s Law, prohibiting the use of no-knock search warrants. Her legislation also led Virginia to become the first southern state to declare racism a public health crisis, to declare access to water a human right, and to make Virginia a leading state in combating maternal and infant mortality. She currently serves on the Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee, the Joint Commission on Technology and Science, the Behavioral Health Commission, the Fentanyl and Heroin Enforcement Task Force, and the Joint Commission on Technology and Science.
She earned her undergraduate degree from Virginia State University and was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Sorensen Political Leadership Program, and a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Minority Political Leadership Institute. As a result of her policy efforts, in 2020 Senator Aird was invited to serve as a Congressional European Parliament Initiative (CEPI) Fellow with the Bertelsmann Foundation.

A tireless and trusted community leader, Lashrecse Aird is actively engaged in numerous civic boards and organizations. She is the Virginia State Social Action Coordinator for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She serves on the Global Advisory Board for the Presidential Precinct. She also serves on the boards for Chippenham Johnston-Willis Hospital, the Sorensen Political Leadership Institute, Sports Backers, and the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood. She is also a member of the Responsible Leaders Network for the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt. Professionally, Lashrecse works in higher education administration at Virginia State University.
Nina Eisenhardt (Alliance 90/The Greens) is a member of the Hessian State Parliament and the spokesperson for universities, science, and artificial intelligence for the BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN parliamentary group. She studied political science at the Technical University of Darmstadt and later earned a master’s degree in International Studies: Peace and Conflict Research at Goethe University Frankfurt. She also worked at KfW Development Bank, focusing on international cooperation.
Her political journey started early—she was elected to the city council of her home town Renningen at the age of 19. A member of BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN since 2012, she has been active in various committees pushing for fairer education and science policies. She had various leading positions in her party, including serving her party’s board as state treasurer for BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN in Hesse.
On January 18, 2019, she was elected to the Hessian State Parliament, representing Groß-Gerau County and Main-Taunus County. She is member of the parliamentarian committees for science and art as well as digitalization and data protection. She focuses on future-oriented policies in science, digitalization, and higher education.
Franziska Müller-Rech (FDP) has been a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Parliament since 2017. She joined the Free Democrats in 2006 during her studies. In 2015, she became deputy district chairwoman of the FDP. Since March 2018, she has succeeded Joachim Stamp as district chairwoman of the FDP in Bonn. In March 2018, she was elected to the Cologne district executive committee at the district party conference in Leverkusen.
In Bonn, Ms. Müller-Rech is a member of the school committee of the city of Bonn as an expert citizen and has been the spokesperson for school policy there since 2014. She was also a spokesperson for school policy in the FDP state parliamentary group. In the 2017 state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, Ms. Müller-Rech won a seat on her party’s state list. On January 27, 2023, she replaced Joachim Stamp in the State Parliament after leaving it in 2022 due to loss of FDP seats.
After graduating from the Erzbischöfliche Liebfrauenschule in Bonn in 2003, she studied at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (specializing in insurance). She successfully completed an apprenticeship as an insurance saleswoman and a degree in business administration (FH). Before she entered the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament, she worked as a team manager in customer service for company pension schemes at Talanx. Ms. Müller-Rech studied “Communication & Leadership” at Quadriga University Berlin and graduated with a Master of Arts in summer 2024.

Kaffeepause: What’s Abuzz in Berlin?
2025-03-24 12:00 - 13:00
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, March 24, at 12:00 p.m. ET for a Kaffeepause with Vladimir Balzer, an award-winning journalist and moderator at Deutschlandfunk.

Vladimir Balzer grew up in Leipzig and studied in Dublin, Venice, and Leipzig. He began his career as a presenter, reporter, and editor at Deutschlandradio and MDR. Mr. Balzer hosts, among other programs, the daily program “Fazit – Kultur vom Tage” on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In 2022, he was selected to be a Kellen Fellow by the American Council on Germany. In 2023 he started as a correspondent at the Capital Studios of Deutschlandfunk in Berlin. He is known as a commentator for German Television, such as ZDF. He also regularly reports for his broadcaster from the U.S.
