Thoughts and Hopes: The Transatlantic Partnership in Turbulent Times
2022-11-28 12:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York)
On November 28, the Los Angeles Warburg Chapter will host a discussion and luncheon with Ambassador John B. Emerson, former U.S. Ambassador to Berlin, Vice Chairman at Capital Group International, and Chairman of the American Council on Germany.
Ambassador John B. Emerson was named Chairman of the American Council on Germany at the Council’s Annual Meeting of the Members on January 17, 2018. He is Vice Chairman at Capital Group International. Previously, he was 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.
Before going to Berlin, he was the President of Capital Group Private Client Services from 1997 to July 2013. Previously, he served on President Clinton’s senior staff, from 1993 to 1997, as Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel, and subsequently as Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Ambassador Emerson also coordinated the Economic Conference of the Clinton-Gore transition team and led the Administration’s efforts to obtain congressional approval of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement in 1994, and the extension of China’s Most-Favored-Nation trading status in 1996. In 2010, President Obama appointed Ambassador Emerson to serve on the President’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Earlier in his career, Ambassador Emerson served as the Los Angeles Chief Deputy City Attorney, from 1987 to 1993.
In 1988, he traveled to Germany on an ACG Political Exchange Fellowship, carried out in collaboration with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Before that, he was a Partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, specializing in business and entertainment litigation and administrative law.

Food for Thought: How States Can Contribute to Achieving a Sustainable Agricultural Future
2022-11-30 11:00 - 12:00
While global challenges are addressed by national governments, increasingly subnational actors such as states, communities, and cities have needed to step up to take action when traditional nation-states have been unable to make progress due to political polarization and partisan gridlocks. This trend has also characterized transatlantic relations and the German-American partnership. The German-American State Legislator Dialogue draws on this notion, focusing on the role of state representatives from the United States and Germany in addressing common transatlantic challenges.
Agriculture is of crucial importance for the economy, society, the environment, and the future of the planet. An environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable agriculture can contribute to protecting natural resources, preserving biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and ensuring global food security. It also plays a significant role in promoting the future prosperity of rural areas and strengthening social cohesion. At the same time, the sector faces significant challenges due to rising population growth, declining biodiversity, new training demands, and the need to adapt to the impacts of climate change. Russia’s war against Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic have added stress to supply chains and led to rising investment costs, price volatility, and global trade conflicts. How can U.S. states and German Länder address these issues and shape the framework for a more sustainable agricultural future?
To discuss these issues, the American Council on Germany and the Aspen Institute Germany invite you to the next discussion in our virtual event series State-to-State: German-American State Legislator Dialogue with German and American state legislators including Representative Sydney Carlin (D), Kansas House of Representatives, Senator Russ Goodman (R), Georgia State Senate, and Elrid Pasbrig MdL (SPD), State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt. Sydney Carlin has been a member of the Kansas House of Representatives, representing the 66th district, since 2003. She is the Ranking Minority Member of both the Kansas House Committee on Agriculture and the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources Budget. Ms. Carlin is a member of a number of community organizations, including the American Cancer Society, American Legion, Fraternal Order of Police, Habitat for Humanity, the American Heart Association, and the Manhattan Arts Center. Prior to being elected to the Kansas House, she served on the Manhattan City Commission from 1993–97 and as mayor of Manhattan from 1996-97.
Russ Goodman has been a member of the Georgia State Senate since 2021, representing the 8th district. He serves as the Secretary for the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Consumer Affairs. Mr. Goodman is a seventh-generation South Georgia farmer and entrepreneur with a passion for agriculture and rural Georgia. He is the co-owner of multiple businesses, including the Great American Cobbler Company, his family-operated fruit cobbler company, and Cogdell Berry Farm, his family’s farm where he is involved in every facet of the operation. He is also co-owner of EnviroSpec, a pressure washer supply store, and manager at Timberline Reforestation which does tree planting throughout the Southeast.
Elrid Pasbrig has been a member of the State Parliament of Saxony-Anhalt since 2021. She is Deputy Chairwoman of the Committee for Agriculture, Food, and Forestry and spokesperson for agriculture, animal welfare, and petitions for the SPD parliamentary group. Born in 1974 in the Former German Democratic Republic in Zerbst/Anhalt, Elrid Pasbrig was raised on a farm in a rural area. This upbringing shaped her interest in agriculture at a very young age. Ms. Pasbrig got her Master’s Degree in politics, sociology, and English and American Studies after studying in Germany, Great Britain, and Norway. She is member of the Social Democrats since 2000 and held different offices from community to state levels since then. Before the election, she worked at the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences and at the Ministry of Economy and Science in Saxony-Anhalt.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-12-05 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, December 5, 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

In Focus: Russia’s War in Ukraine Understanding the War’s New Phase
2022-12-06 11:00 - 12:00
The Tennessee World Affairs Council and the American Council on Germany launched the “In Focus: Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine” series in January with a conversation with Ambassador John Kornblum as storm clouds gathered. The series has followed the twists and turns of the unprovoked war over the last nine months.
Now, Ukrainian forces have successfully pushed back Russian forces in the east while Russia continues to brutalize the civilian population with missile and drone strikes aimed at crippling infrastructure and energy supplies, turning out lights and turning off the heat, and weaponizing winter. Questions remain about the resilience of the West’s commitment to Ukraine — military, humanitarian, and other financial aid — and the endgame — what it will take to end the war.
The American Council on Germany and the Tennessee World Affairs Council are continuing their series of virtual events titled In Focus: Russia’s War in Ukraine. Join us for a discussion about the evolving crisis with Ambassador John Kornblum, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Ambassador John C. Kornblum has a long record of service in the United States and Europe both as a diplomat and as a businessman. He is recognized as an eminent expert on U.S.-European political and economic relations, in particular in Central and Eastern Europe. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 1997 to 2001. Before that, he occupied a number of high-level diplomatic posts, including U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European affairs, Special Envoy for the Dayton Peace Process, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Process), Deputy U.S. Ambassador to NATO, and U.S. minister and deputy commandant of forces in divided Berlin.

Finding Common Ground: German and U.S. Policies Toward China
2022-12-07 12:00 - 13:00
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February recalibrated the attention of the transatlantic community toward Europe while pushing the longer-term challenges posed by China to the backburner. Yet, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “pro-Russia” neutrality in the Ukraine conflict and joint efforts by Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin to weaken the liberal rules-based order have not gone unnoticed in European capitals and Washington DC. In addition, persistent concerns about Chinese human rights abuses, influence operations in Europe, unfair trade practices, economic coercion, and military pressure on Taiwan make it likely that China will remain high on the transatlantic agenda.
Xi has officially secured another five years as the head of the Chinese Communist Party and emerged from the 20th Party Congress in a strong position to advance his agenda, which includes reshaping international politics and global governance so it is more favorable to China’s interests. Strengthened, he will be even more confident in exerting Chinese influence regionally and globally, less risk averse, and likely even less willing to listen to alternative views from within the party system.
In light of this, transatlantic coordination and cooperation will be even more critical. Join ACG and 1014 for another discussion as part of their virtual series Democracies under Pressure: Challenges for the Global Liberal Order. We will be joined by Sinologists Dr. Kristin Shi-Kupfer and Yun Sun for German and American perspectives on the complex relationship with China. Dr. Kristin Shi-Kupfer is a Professor of Sinology at the University of Trier and a Senior Associate Fellow at MERICS. She is an expert on China’s digital politics, media policy, civil society, and human rights.
From 2013 until September 2020, Dr. Shi-Kupfer headed MERICS’ research area on Public Policy and Society. She previously worked as a research associate at the University of Freiburg’s Institute for Sinology. She earned her Ph.D. from Ruhr University Bochum with a thesis on spiritual and religious groups in China after 1978. From 2007 to 2011, she was based in Beijing, covering China for various German-speaking media like the Austrian magazine Profil, the German Protestant Press Agency EPD, and the public radio station Deutsche Welle. Since 2019 she has been a member of the Sino-German Working Group on Digital Business Models initiated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Yun Sun is a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the East Asia Program and Director of the China Program at the Stimson Center. Her expertise is in Chinese foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, and China’s relations with neighboring countries and authoritarian regimes.
From 2011 to early 2014, she was a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, jointly appointed by the Foreign Policy Program and the Global Development Program, where she focused on Chinese national security decision-making processes and China-Africa relations. From 2008 to 2011, Yun was the China Analyst for the International Crisis Group based in Beijing, specializing in China’s foreign policy towards conflict countries and the developing world. Before ICG, she worked on U.S.-Asia relations in Washington, DC for five years. Yun earned her master’s degree in international policy and practice from George Washington University, as well as an MA in Asia Pacific studies and a BA in international relations from Foreign Affairs College in Beijing.

Bridge Over Troubled Water: The Transatlantic Relationship in an Era of Insecurity
2022-12-07 12:00 - 13:30
Join the ACG-Los Angeles for a discussion and luncheon with Dr. Stormy-Annika Mildner, the Executive Director of Aspen Institute Germany.
Dr. Stormy-Annika Mildner (M.Sc.) became Director of the Aspen Institute Germany in Berlin, a renowned policy-oriented think tank focusing on transatlantic relations and issues of global importance, in January 2021. As an adjunct professor, she teaches political economy at the Hertie School. From 2014 to 2020, she served as head of the External Economic Policy Department at the Federation of German Industries (BDI), where she was responsible for international trade and investment issues. She spearheaded the German Business7 Presidency (2015) and the German Business20 Presidency (2016-2017) as Sherpa. Prior to joining BDI, she was member of the Board of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), worked as a lecturer at the John F. Kennedy Institute of the Free University of Berlin, and headed the Globalization and the World Economy program at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). She completed research fellowships at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies and the Transatlantic Academy of the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Washington. She earned a Master of Science in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. in Economics from Freie Universität Berlin. During her doctoral studies, she conducted a one-year fellowship at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-12-12 09:00 - 10:30
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, December 12, at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Marina Kormbaki, Journalist for Der Spiegel. Marina Kormbaki has been with the weekly Der Spiegel since August 2022. She is in the Berlin bureau and covers German politics – with a special focus on the Green Party and foreign policy. She has been reporting on people, politics, and power in Berlin since 2015. Previously, she worked for The Pioneer and, before that the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND). Earlier in her career, she wrote for the Hannoverschen Allgemeinen Zeitung. She was born in Hannover and studied Social Sciences there.

After COP27: The G7 and the Global South
2022-12-12 11:00 - 12:00
Under the Climate and Environment Track during Germany’s G7 Presidency, environment, climate and energy ministers from G7 countries have pursued several goals including the accelerated global phase-out of coal; the forced decarbonization of certain sectors; the systematic transtition toward environmental sustainability in all areas of life; and initiatives to protect the ocean. This work builds on the previous G7 agenda, which includes the sustainable use of resources, adapting to the impact of the climate crisis, and the development of environmentally sustainable supply chains.
After COP27 and as Germany’s G7 Presidency draws to a close, join the American Council on Germany and the German Embassy in Washington, DC for the final event in their series of online discussions highlighting Germany’s G7 Presidency.
On Monday, December 12, climate experts Jennifer Lee Morgan, State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action in the German Federal Foreign Office, and Dr. Jonathan Pershing, the Program Director of Environment at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, will discuss new initiatives to tackle the climate crisis and how the G7 countries can work with the Global South to address common challenges. Jennifer Lee Morgan is a German-American environmental and climate expert who has worked extensively on both sides of the Atlantic. She has been State Secretary and Special Envoy for International Climate Action in the German Federal Foreign Office since March 2022. Before that, she served as the Executive Director of Greenpeace International. From 2013 to 2016, she was a Member of the German Council for Sustainable Development, and from 2009 to 2016, she was the Global Director of the Climate Program at the World Resources Institute in Washington, DC. She served as a Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and has worked at the WWF International, the U.S. Climate Action Network, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Earlier in her career, she served as Coordinator of the Cities for Climate Protection Campaign at ICLEI in Freiburg.
Ms. Morgan earned her BA at Indiana University in Bloomington and a MA in International Affairs at the School of International Service at American University. She had a Robert Bosch Fellowship and served at the German Federal Ministry for the Environment
Dr. Jonathan Pershing is the Program Director of Environment at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He leads a team of grantmakers focused on climate change in the United States, China, India, Europe, and Latin America, and conserving the North American West. He served as Hewlett’s Environment Program director from 2017 to 2021 and returned to lead the program in 2022.
From 2021 to 2022, Dr. Pershing supported Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry in advancing various international commitments over the past year. Previously, he served as Special Envoy for Climate Change at the U.S. Department of State and lead U.S. negotiator to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. In this capacity – as well as in his earlier capacity as Deputy Special Envoy – he was instrumental in securing the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and subsequently, as senior international climate advisor to the White House and Secretary of State, was charged with overseeing its early implementation.
He holds a Ph.D. in geology and geophysics from the University of Minnesota. A scientist by training, he served as a lead author, review editor, and contributor for reports of the Nobel-prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He has taught at the University of Minnesota and American University, and he has published and lectured widely on climate and energy issues.

Covid, War, and Energy: The Economic and Social Impact of Simultaneous Crises
2022-12-14 11:30 - 12:30
COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine have created huge disruptions – with lasting implications at the global, national, and local levels. Although some concerns about the pandemic have subsided, the medical community is talking about a “tripledemic” as the year draws to a close. The enduring public health crisis and the war have led to supply chain disruptions, food shortages, and rising prices for commodities like energy and food. What are the economic and social impacts of the myriad crises we are facing? And how can they be addressed? By government? Business? Civil society?
Join ACG and 1014 for another discussion as part of their virtual series Democracies under Pressure: Challenges for the Global Liberal Order. We will be joined by Prof. Dr. Jutta Allmendinger, President of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, and Dr. Adam Tooze, Shelby Cullom Davis Chair of History and Director of the European Institute at Columbia University, to look at the economic and social impact of the simultaneous crises we are facing. The discussion will be moderated by journalist Ines Pohl, Washington bureau chief for Deutsche Welle. Dr. Jutta Allmendinger is President of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and Professor of educational sociology and labor market research at Humboldt University. She is also a senior fellow at CES. Her research interests focus on gender inequality in the workplace, sociology of the labor market, rising inequality in Europe, and educational reform in Germany.
Dr. Allmendinger earned her doctorate in social studies from Harvard. Before joining the WZB in 2007, she was a Professor of Sociology at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich from 1992 to 2007 and director of the Institute of Employment Research in Nuremberg from 2003 to 2007. She was a fellow at Harvard Business School from 1991 to 1992.
Dr. Allmendinger serves on numerous advisory boards in Germany and abroad. She is a member of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the German Academy of Engineering Science acatech, and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
Dr. Adam Tooze has held the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Chair of History at Columbia University since 2015 and also serves as Director of the European Institute.
Having received his BA in Economics from King’s College Cambridge in 1989, he had the good fortune to witness the end of the Cold War in Berlin, where he began his postgraduate studies. He received his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. From 1996 to 2009, Dr. Tooze taught at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Reader in Modern History and Gurnee Hart fellow in History at Jesus College. After Cambridge, Dr. Tooze was appointed to the Barton M. Biggs Professorship at Yale University, where he succeeded Paul Kennedy as the Director of International Security Studies.
In February 2011, he served as Thomas Hawkins Johnson Visiting Professor in Military History at West Point. Dr. Tooze’s first book, Statistics and the German State: The Making of Modern Economic Knowledge, appeared in 2001; Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy was published in 2006; Deluge: The Great War and the Remaking of the Global Order 1916-1931 in 2014; Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World in 2018; and Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy in 2021. He has written and reviewed for the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Sunday Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, the New Left Review, the New Statesman, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, Dissent, Die Zeit, Spiegel, Tageszeitung, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Moderator: Ines Pohl is the Washington bureau chief for Deutsche Welle. She served as the Editor in Chief of Deutsche Welle from 2017-2020. During her three-year tenure, she focused on increasing DW’s social media presence and the exclusive content of all 30 language services. She joined DW in 2015 as a correspondent in the Washington bureau. As a journalist, she is particularly interested in questions of democratic legitimacy and transition and is passionate about human rights and the role of democratic structures in developing countries. Ms. Pohl strongly advocates using social media to enhance the connection between audiences and journalists in the digital age.
She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2005, where she spent the year focused on immigration and the impact of religion and leadership. She currently serves on the board of trustees for “Reporters without Borders” and “Youth Against AIDS”. From 2009-2015, Ms. Pohl was the editor-in-chief of Die Tageszeitung “taz,” a national daily German newspaper, where she launched a new weekend edition and restructured www.taz.de, now one of Germany’s popular news sites.

A Constant State of Crisis: Olaf Scholz’s Ampelkoalition One Year In
2022-12-15 11:00 - 12:00
When the three-party coalition under the leadership of Social Democrats assumed office a year ago, no one could have anticipated the number – or severity – of the crises it would face. The Ampelkoalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats would have faced a steep learning curve under the best of circumstances. Lingering concerns over Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine have overshadowed the first year of this fledgling coalition. While it has met some of its campaign promises and had some other achievements, two recent public opinion polls indicate that two-thirds of the population is dissatisfied with the Ampel.
Join us for a conversation with Stefan Kornelius, the Political Editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, assessing the first year of the new government. Stefan Kornelius is the Political Editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Previously he served as the 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. Before 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.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2022-12-19 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, December 19, at 9:00 am ET for the last Kaffeepause of the year with ACG Young Leader alumnus Matthias Deiß, Deputy Director of ARD’s television studio in Berlin. Matthias Deiß is the Deputy Director of ARD’s Hauptstadtstudio in Berlin and deputy editor-in-chief of television. From 2018 to 2021, he served as the editorial director for ARD’s political magazine Kontraste. Before this, he worked from 2012 to 2017 as a TV correspondent with ARD. He studied communications and political science at the University of Munich and at the German School of Journalism in Munich.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2023-01-09 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, January 9, at 9:00 am ET for the first Kaffeepause of the year with Bloomberg Opinion columnist Andreas Kluth. Andreas Kluth is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. Between March 2017 and February 2019, he was editor-in-chief of Handelsblatt Global, the English-language edition of Germany’s leading business newspaper. For the two decades before that, he wrote for The Economist — in London, Hong Kong, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and Berlin.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2023-01-23 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 for a Kaffeepause with Sonja Gillert, Head of Audio and Podcaster for Die Welt.

Global Challenges 60 Years after the Élysée Treaty
2023-01-26 11:00 - 12:00
Following centuries of rivalry and conflict, France and Germany sent a strong signal of post-war reconciliation and laid the foundation for close cooperation to support European integration when President Charles de Gaulle and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signed the Élysée Treaty on January 22, 1963. Six decades later, the six-member European Economic Community has grown to a European Union with 27 member states, East and West Germany have unified, the United Kingdom has joined (1973) and left (2020) the European club, the Soviet Union has dissolved, and Russia has invaded Ukraine. In this transformed world, the Franco-German alliance remains important, but it faces new challenges.
This weekend, President Emmanuel Macron and Chancellor Olaf Scholz will meet before the pair lead a joint cabinet meeting to mark the anniversary of the Elysée Treaty. How can the Franco-German alliance navigate the changing global order – and what lessons can be drawn 60 years after signing the treaty? Join the American Council on Germany and the French-American Foundation for a virtual discussion with Ambassador Antje Leendertse, Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations, and Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations. Ambassador Antje Leendertse has served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations in New York since September 2021. Prior to this, she was State Secretary of the Federal Foreign Office starting in 2019, after serving as Political Director in the Foreign Office from 2018 to 2019. She has served as a Permanent Representative before, in her capacity as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Office of the United Nations and the other international organizations in Geneva from 2017 to 2018. Before that, she was Ambassador and Head of the Task Force for the 2016 OSCE Chairmanship from 2015 to 2017; Ambassador and Federal Government Commissioner for Disarmament and Arms Control in the Foreign Office from 2014 to 2015; and Ambassador and Director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia in the Foreign Office from 2012 to 2014. Before that, Ambassador Leendertse served as Head of Division for the Western Balkans in the Foreign Office from 2009 to 2012. She entered the Foreign Service in the seminal year of 1990. She holds a master’s degree in medieval and modern history, Romance languages, economics, and philosophy from the University of Cologne.
Ambassador Nicolas de Rivière took office as Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations in New York on 8th July 2019. A graduate of the “Condorcet” class of the Ecole nationale d’administration (ENA), he was previously Director General of Political and Security Affairs at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (2014-2019). He also served as Assistant Secretary for the United Nations, International Organizations, Human Rights and Francophonie (2011-2014) and Deputy Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations in New York (2009-2010).
Ambassador de Rivière served in the offices of two Foreign Ministers: first, as Counselor for Economic Affairs, Asia and North America in the office of Dominique de Villepin (2002-2004), then as Counselor for International Economic issues, Asia and Americas in the office of Michel Barnier (2004-2005).
Nicolas de Rivière was conferred the insignia of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in July 2015.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2023-01-30 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, January 30, at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Matthew Karnitschnig, Chief Europe Correspondent for Politico. Matthew Karnitschnig is POLITICO’s chief Europe correspondent, based in Berlin. He joined the publication in 2015 from the Wall Street Journal, where he spent 15 years in a variety of positions as a reporter and editor in the U.S. and Europe.
In a career spanning two decades, Mr. Karnitschnig has been on the front lines of some of the defining political and economic stories of our time. In 2008, he covered the fall of Lehman Brothers and the financial crisis that ensued. He was part of a team of Journal reporters that won a Gerald Loeb award and was named a Pulitzer finalist for National Reporting in 2009.
He subsequently spearheaded the WSJ’s coverage of the eurozone debt crisis as the paper’s Germany bureau chief and European economics editor. He led the team that was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting in 2011 and won an Overseas Press Club award in 2012.
Mr. Karnitschnig previously worked as a journalist for BusinessWeek, Reuters, and Bloomberg.
The son of an Austrian father and an American mother, he grew up in Arizona, where he got his start reporting as a stringer for the Phoenix Gazette during high school.

One Year On: Germany’s Foreign Policy Reckoning After Ukraine
2023-02-02 13:00 - 14:30
On 27 February 2022, three days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a set of transformative measures for Germany’s foreign and defense policy. One year on, to what extent has the war in Ukraine changed not only German politics and public opinion but that of its allies? Looking ahead, how will the “Zeitenwende” impact relations with actors like Russia and China?
Join the American Council on Germany, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Körber-Stiftung, Pew Research Center, and the German Embassy in Washington for an in-depth review of what we can expect from Germany’s implementation of the foreign and defense policy changes that Chancellor Scholz announced almost a year ago. Julia Ganter, Editor of “The Berlin Pulse” for the Körber-Stiftung, and Jacob Poushter, Associate Director of the Pew Research CenterPew Research Center, will briefly share insights on German and U.S. public opinion based on the survey results of the annual report The Berlin Pulse. A panel discussion will follow with Ambassador Emily Haber, German Ambassador to the United States; Ambassador Oksana Markarova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States; Dan Baer, Senior Vice President for Policy Research and Director of the Europe Program at Carnegie; and Sophia Besch, Fellow in the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and moderated by ACG President and CEO Dr. Steven E. Sokol.
This is a hybrid event and will be held in Washington, DC.

Dan Baer is Senior Vice President for Policy Research and Director of the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Before, he was the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Sophia Besch is a Fellow in the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her research focuses on European foreign and defense policy.
Julia Ganter is the Program Manager and Editor of The Berlin Pulse. She is also responsible for Asia activities in the International Affairs Department of the Körber-Stiftung.
Ambassador Emily Haber has been the German Ambassador to the United States since June 2018. Before her transfer to Washington, DC, she served in various leadership functions at the Foreign Office in Berlin.
Ambassador Oksana Markarova is a Ukrainian politician and the current Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States. Before being appointed Ambassador, she was the Minister of Finance of Ukraine.
Jacob Poushter is an Associate Director at Pew Research Center. His focus is on international survey research, including public opinion on the international image of the United States and perceptions of global threats.
Dr. Steven E. Sokol (moderator) is the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany. He served as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh from July 2010 until April 2015. Before that, he was Vice President and Director of Programs at the American Council on Germany.

Canceled - Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2023-02-06 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, February 6, at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Paul-Anton Krüger, Parliamentary Correspondent in the Berlin Bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Paul-Anton Krüger has been the Parliamentary Correspondent in the Berlin Bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung since the 2021 federal election. Previously he reported on political affairs and served as Deputy Head of the Foreign Policy Department with a focus on the Middle East and international security for three years. Before that, he spent four years in Cairo and was 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.

A Rocky Road Ahead? German-American Friendshoring in an Era of Systemic Rivalry
2023-02-14 07:30 - 09:00
The ACG and the American Institute of Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) will hold an official MSC side event with Franziska Brantner, Parliamentary State Secretary, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, and Member of the German Bundestag (Greens); Lars Klingbeil, Co-Chairman, Social Democratic Party of Germany, German Bundestag; Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Deputy Chairman, Free Democratic Party Parliamentary Group, German Bundestag; and Governor Phil Murphy, Governor of New Jersey and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany; and others.

Leveraging Innovation and Technology for National Security
2023-02-16 18:00 - 20:00
The ACG will host a discussion on hybrid war in the 21st century followed by a reception with Wendy R. Anderson, Senior Vice President, Federal, National Security at Palantir Technologies; Liesyl Franz, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Cyberspace Security in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy; Christopher Sharrock, Vice President of United Nations and International Organizations at Microsoft; and Ambassador Kurt Volker, President and Founder of Alliance Strategic Advisors, LLC.

Endless War in Ukraine and Global Security
2023-02-17 08:30 - 10:00
The ACG and KPMG International will host a breakfast briefing with Jane Harman, Distinguished Fellow and President Emerita of the Wilson Center and former Member of Congress, and Lieutenant General Ben Hodges; Senior Advisor at Human Rights First and Retired Commanding General of the United States Army Europe; and 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.

The Russian-Ukraine War and European Security: Defense and Deterrence 2023
2023-02-19 07:30 - 09:00
In cooperation with the Aspen Institute Germany, Berlin Dialogue, and the German-American Exchange, the ACG will host an off-the-record discussion with Heather Conley, President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States; NATO Secretary General Mircea Geona; Ambassador Oleksii Makeiev, Ukrainian Embassy Berlin; and Minister of State Tobias Lindner, Federal Foreign Office.

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Munich?
2023-02-21 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 Tuesday, February 21, at 9:00 am ET for a special Kaffeepause following the Munich Security Conference with Steven Erlanger, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in Europe for The New York Times. Steven Erlanger is the Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in Europe for The New York Times, a position he assumed in 2017. He is based in Brussels.
Mr. Erlanger was previously the Bureau Chief in London from 2013 to 2017; in Paris from 2008 to 2013; in Jerusalem from 2004 to 2008; in Berlin from 2001 to 2002; in Prague from 1999 to 2001; in Moscow from 1994 to 1996; and in Bangkok, Thailand, from 1988 to 1991.
Mr. Erlanger has also served as the newspaper’s Editor of cultural news from 2002 to 2004, as the Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in Washington from 1996 to 1999, and as a Moscow Correspondent from 1992 to 1994. He joined The Times in 1987 as a metro reporter.
Before coming to The Times, Mr. Erlanger worked for The Boston Globe for 11 years. At The Globe, he was a European Correspondent, based in London from 1983 to 1987, and the Deputy National and Foreign Editor for three years before that. He also served as Assistant National Editor and Assistant Foreign Editor and reported from Eastern Europe, Canada, and revolutionary Iran.
From 1975 to 1983, Mr. Erlanger was a teaching fellow at Harvard University, first in the College and then at the Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He also was the assistant editor of the Nieman Reports, the journal of Harvard’s Nieman Foundation for Journalism, in 1975.
Mr. Erlanger shared the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for a series about Russia, and was part of a team awarded the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his work on Al Qaeda. In 2016, Mr. Erlanger was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur by the French government for his long career in journalism. He shared and received the American Society of News Editors’ Jesse Laventhol Prize for deadline reporting in 2001 for his work in the former Yugoslavia. He received the German Marshall Fund’s Peter Weitz Prize in 2000 for excellence and originality in reporting and analyzing European and transatlantic affairs and the Robert Livingston Award for International Reporting in 1981 for a series of articles about Eastern Europe.
Mr. Erlanger graduated from the Taft School in Watertown, Conn., and received an A.B. degree, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Harvard College in 1974. He majored in political philosophy in the government department. He also studied Russian as a senior fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford.
Mr. Erlanger has published articles in The Economist, The Spectator, The New Statesman, The New Republic, The Financial Times, Foreign Policy, The National Interest, the Columbia Journalism Review, and other publications. He wrote a monograph, “The Colonial Worker in Boston, 1775,” for the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1975.

One Year Later: Russia’s War in Ukraine, Germany’s Policy Pivot, and Implications for Transatlantic Relations
2023-02-21 12:00 - 14:00
The Chicago Warburg Chapter and the University of Chicago International House will host a discussion and luncheon wth Metin Hakverdi, Member of the Bundestag (SPD). Metin Hakverdi joined the Social Democratic Party in 2002 and has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2013. He serves on the Bundestag’s Committee on European Union Affairs and on the Budget Committee. He is the Chairman of the USA/North America Working Group within the SPD Parliamentary Group and a member of the German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group in the German Bundestag. Before being elected to the Bundestag, Mr. Hakverdi was a member of the Parliament of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg from 2008 to 2013, where he was on the Budget Committee and the Committee of Public Companies and Assets.
Mr. Hakverdi attended high school in Simi Valley, California, in 1985/86 and studied law at the Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel and Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. He was a distinguished visitor at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in 2019 and a 2020 John F. Kennedy Memorial Policy Fellow at Harvard’s Center for European Studies (CES). He is a member of the Atlantik-Brücke e.V.

One Year Later: Russia’s War in Ukraine, Germany’s Policy Pivot, and Implications for Transatlantic Relations
2023-02-23 18:00 - 19:30
The American Council on Germany, Deutsches Haus at NYU, and NYU’s The Center for European and Mediterranean will host a discussion and reception with Metin Hakverdi, Member of the Bundestag (SPD). Metin Hakverdi joined the Social Democratic Party in 2002 and has been a member of the German Bundestag since 2013. He serves on the Bundestag’s Committee on European Union Affairs and the Budget Committee. He is the Chairman of the USA/North America Working Group within the SPD Parliamentary Group and a German-American Parliamentary Friendship Group member in the German Bundestag. Before being elected to the Bundestag, Mr. Hakverdi was a member of the Parliament of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg from 2008 to 2013, where he was on the Budget Committee and the Committee of Public Companies and Assets.
Mr. Hakverdi attended high school in Simi Valley, California, in 1985/86 and studied law at the Christian-Albrecht University in Kiel and Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law. He was a distinguished visitor at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in 2019 and a 2020 John F. Kennedy Memorial Policy Fellow at Harvard’s Center for European Studies (CES). He is a member of Atlantik-Brücke e.V.

Understanding Germany: One Year After the Zeitenwende
2023-02-27 11:00 - 12:00
Three days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addressed a special session of the Bundestag on Sunday, February 27. In his Zeitenwende speech, he laid out a set of transformative – and ambitious – measures for Germany’s foreign, security, and energy policies. The speech was perceived as a major turning point for Germany – and for the security architecture of Europe. One year later, the demand for German leadership is more significant than ever.
As we mark the anniversary of the speech, there are a host of open questions, including: To what degree has the war in Ukraine changed not only German politics and public opinion, but that of its allies? How should European stakeholders be involved in Russia’s aggression in Ukraine? What is the future security architecture of Europe? How will the Zeitenwende impact relations with actors like Russia and China?
To address these questions, join us for a virtual discussion with ACG Young Leader alumna Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller. She is an expert on German, European, and transatlantic foreign and security policy and strategy.

Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller (1993 ACG Young Leader) 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 the Brookings Institution. She held the Kissinger Chair on Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress from October 2019 to March 2020 and served as the inaugural Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at Brookings from 2014 to 2019.
Prior to working at Brookings, she was a senior transatlantic fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), where she directed the influential Transatlantic Trends survey program. She also managed the “New Power, New Responsibility” project. Her areas of expertise include: trans-Atlantic relations; German foreign policy; NATO; the European Union’s foreign, security, and defense policy; international law; and human rights.
Dr. Stelzenmüller is the former director of GMF’s Berlin office. From 1994 to 2005, she was defense and international security editor in the political section of the German weekly DIE ZEIT; previously, she had covered human rights issues, war crimes tribunals, and humanitarian crises. 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.
Dr. Stelzenmüller’s essays and articles, in both German and English, have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Foreign Affairs, Internationale Politik, the Washington Post and Süddeutsche Zeitung. She writes a monthly column in the Financial Times. Her dissertation, “Direkte Demokratie in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika,” was published in 1994 by Nomos. She is also a frequent commentator on American and European radio and television, including PBS Newshour, National Public Radio, and the BBC. Stelzenmüller is an honorary governor of the Ditchley Foundation and a fellow of the Royal Swedish Society for War Sciences. 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).

Kaffeepause: What's Abuzz in Berlin?
2023-03-06 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, March 6, at 9:00 am ET for a Kaffeepause with Paul-Anton Krüger, Parliamentary Correspondent in the Berlin Bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Paul-Anton Krüger has been the Parliamentary Correspondent in the Berlin Bureau of the Süddeutsche Zeitung since the 2021 federal election. Previously he 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 and was 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.

Streaming Boom and the Rise of German Talent
2023-03-07 11:00 - 12:00
Edward Berger’s German-language feature film “All Quiet On The Western Front” has proven to be a run-away sensation for Netflix since it was launched on the streaming platform last fall. It ranks fourth on the list of the most popular non-English language films on Netflix and has been in the streamer’s own top 10 in over 91 countries – including Germany, UK, US, Australia, France, Mexico, and South Korea. The film won seven prizes – including best picture – at the British Academy Film Awards last month and has been nominated for nine Oscars. The film offers a visceral depiction of life and death in the World War I trenches based on Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel and comes at a time when much of the world is gripped by the war in Ukraine.
What accounts for the success of this film? How has the entertainment industry changed with streaming services? And why do German films and series play such a major role on streaming services? To discuss these questions and the renaissance of German talent in front of and behind the camera, join the American Council on Germany, the German Film Office, and the Goethe Institut for a discussion with Sasha Bühler, the woman behind bringing “All Quiet” to Netflix. She serves as Director of International Films at Netflix. Sasha Bühler joined Netflix as the Director of International Films in December 2019. She started her career in production, first in news, then across documentaries, animation, and feature films. This was followed by positions as Head of Acquisitions at SquareOne Entertainment and the Munich Film Academy (HHF). Her most recent position was Head of Acquisitions and International Co-Productions at Constantin Film for eleven years.
Ms. Bühler grew up in the United States, graduated from Vassar College, and then lived in Germany for 30 years before moving to London for her current position. Recently she relocated to Berlin to spearhead the entire DACH film production for Netflix. She is active in several women’s networks and is a regular lecturer on women’s issues.

What’s Feminist about Germany’s Feminist Foreign Policy?
2023-03-08 11:00 - 12:00
On March 1, the German Federal Foreign Office released its framework for a Feminist Foreign Policy. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economic Cooperation and Development Minister Svenja Schulze gave a joint statement saying that more equal societies suffer less from hunger and poverty and are, therefore, more stable. The new guidelines state that Germany will lobby to ensure that basic human rights such as access to food, healthcare, education, and security are more in focus globally, that women are better represented, and that Germany’s development funds are allocated to more projects that tackle gender inequality.
Coming from Germany, this framework gives fresh momentum to the feminist foreign policy movement, which was pioneered by a leftist Swedish government in 2014. But, what does a Feminist Foreign Policy actually mean? How can it be implemented? And, how does it differ from a values-oriented foreign policy? What does it look like in practice when addressing the war in Ukraine or the situation in Iran?
To address these questions, join us on International Women’s Day for a virtual discussion with Barbara Mittelhammer. She is is a Berlin-based independent consultant and political analyst who focuses on feminist foreign policy, human security, as well as gender in peace and security. Barbara Mittelhammer is an independent, Berlin-based political analyst and consultant. Her research focuses on feminist foreign policy, gender in peace and security, human security, and civil society’s role in foreign policy-making. She has published on applying feminist foreign policy toward Iran and Syria, and has worked with think tanks, foundations, international organizations, ministries, parliamentarians, and civil society organizations, such as Carnegie Europe, Heinrich-Böll Foundation, Friedrich-Ebert Foundation, the German Foreign Office, and GIZ. In addition, she is a certified mediator.
As director with the Agora Strategy Group, a political consultancy, Ms. Mittelhammer built up and managed the Agora Strategy Institute, the consultancy’s think tank unit with a far-reaching global network of experts, and led international client projects. She headed Agora Strategy’s Berlin office and was head of HR and team lead. Before that, she was a press officer and project manager with the Munich Security Conference, one of the world’s leading platforms for debating international security policy. Ms. Mittelhammer studied political science, international law, and cultural anthropology in Munich and Paris. She is fluent in English, Spanish, French, and German, and speaks Italian.

Germany’s China Policy: Has it Learned any Lessons from its Dependence on Russia?
2023-03-09 11:00 - 12:00
What was once seen as a mutually beneficial bilateral relationship between China and Germany is being put under the microscope as Berlin considers its complex economic relationship with the People’s Republic. Germany’s coalition government is working on a new national security strategy – and also a strategy for relations with China. Berlin’s re-evaluation of its economic and foreign policy regarding Beijing comes just as China’s parliament — the National People’s Congress — will meet for the first time since China’s “Covid Zero” policy was lifted.
On March 5th, some 3,000 deputies will gather to review the government’s performance over the past year and hear how the country’s top leaders plan to jumpstart the economy and aid recovery from the pandemic and the economic slowdown. The legislature will also formally name new officials to government posts, and over the course of the week China watchers will be able to gain some insights on some of the country’s new leaders – like Li Qiang, who’s poised to become the Premier, and the new foreign minister, Qin Gang.
One of the people watching the developments in Berlin and Beijing closely is ACG Young Leader alumna Dana Heide, who served as Handelsblatt’s China correspondent for three years before moving to Berlin. Dana Heide (2018 ACG Young Leader) has been the Handelsblatt’s capital correspondent in Berlin since the summer of 2022. Before that, she was Handelsblatt’s China correspondent in Beijing for three years. After studying Economics in Bremen, she joined Handelsblatt in 2011 – and already reported from Berlin from 2015 to 2019. She covers the German Foreign Office and focuses on international relations, especially German-Chinese relations, as well as the German government’s China policy.

In Focus: Russia’s War in Ukraine Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: One Year Later
2023-03-14 11:00 - 12:00
When Russian troops invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, President Vladimir Putin thought his forces would take Kyiv and bring down the government within days. A year later, the war rages on. Ukraine has courageously defended itself against the Russian onslaught, but there is no end in sight.
The American Council on Germany and the Tennessee World Affairs Council are continuing their series of virtual events titled In Focus: Russia’s War in Ukraine to provide continued updates on the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine that has rocked the world order.
Join us on Tuesday, March 14 for a discussion with Dr. Liana Fix, a Fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Ambassador John Kornblum, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany. Dr. Liana Fix is a Fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations, based in Washington, DC. Previously, she served in the International Affairs Department of the Körber Foundation in Berlin. She is a political scientist and historian, and her work focuses on Russia and Eastern Europe, European security, arms control, and German foreign policy. She will be focusing on transatlantic policy toward Russia while at GMF. Dr. Fix has been published widely in academia, think tanks, and national and international media. She holds a doctorate degree from the Justus Liebig University Giessen and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Ambassador John C. Kornblum has a long record of service in the United States and Europe both as a diplomat and as a businessman. He is recognized as an eminent expert on U.S.-European political and economic relations, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 1997 to 2001. Before that, he occupied a number of high-level diplomatic posts, including U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European affairs, Special Envoy for the Dayton Peace Process, U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Process), Deputy U.S. Ambassador to NATO, and U.S. minister and deputy commandant of forces in divided Berlin.
