At Issue
Knocking on Germany’s Door
There may be a lot of grumbling in parts of Europe about German arrogance in dealing with the euro crisis, but it has not interfered with record numbers of people immigrating to Germany. Last year that number totaled more than a million new immigrants (Statistisches Bundesamt), a wave not seen in over… Read more >
Renewing the Green Agenda
The Green Party in Germany geared up for the battle for Berlin this past weekend at their party conference. With the elections now less than five months away, the party is betting its chances on both its own platform and a commitment to form a government with the Social Democrats if the… Read more >
Saving Syria: Challenges and Choices
Germany’s debate over its foreign policy parameters is a portrait of a country struggling with its own past and present. Yet this same debate does not shed much light on its future. That is not necessarily different from other countries, including the U.S. But the benchmarks of the debates reflect different ways… Read more >
Germany’s Alternatives
There is a new metric in Germany to measure its “normalization.” Just like many of its neighbors, Germany now has a political movement forming as a backlash against the euro. The “Alternative for Germany” group is preparing itself for the next elections in September and its timing may be quite prescient. The… Read more >
Leadership and Responsibilities: Changing Parameters in German-American Relations
In 1989—on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany—President George Herbert Walker Bush asked Germany to be a partner in leadership with the United States. Speaking in Mainz just a half year before the Berlin Wall fell, Bush proclaimed: “The historic genius of the German people has… Read more >
Iraq’s Transformations – and Our Own
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Yet, it drew a somewhat limited focus in the German media, which was much more attentive to the new Pope in Rome or the economic plight of Cyprus. Those commentaries that did aim at this milestone reflected a glass half empty attitude… Read more >
Finding the Elevator Door
The debates over the concept of a just society bring differing approaches to freedom, liberty, fairness, and the role of the state and the responsibilities of the individual. The argument is also about the content of the collective good. While the battle ground in the United States over these challenging issues looks… Read more >
Listening to Legacies
This week, millions of Germans watched a new made for television series called “Our Mothers, Our Fathers” (Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter). The series presents the events of the Second World War through the lives of a few friends who experience the wartime years in different settings either on the Russian front or… Read more >
Papal Purposes
As the College of Cardinals gathered in Rome this week to choose—for the first time in 600 years—one pope to replace another who is still living, I reflected on two essays I wrote about Benedikt during the eight years of his tenure. The first essay in 2005 suggested that Cardinal Ratzinger, as… Read more >
Government – Italian Style
While there is nothing better than watching Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni explain marriage Italian style, watching government styles is a bit more challenging. A recent editorial in The Washington Post compared the current gridlock up and down Pennsylvania to the recent Italian elections: “Politics in Washington has become far worse than… Read more >
