Dr. Jack Janes
Dr. Janes
Jackson Janes is the President of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, where he has been affiliated since 1989.
Dr. Janes has been engaged in German-American affairs in numerous capacities over many years. He has studied and taught in German universities in Freiburg, Giessen and Tübingen. He was the Director of the German-American Institute in Tübingen (1977-1980) and then directed the European office of The German Marshall Fund of the United States in Bonn (1980-1985). Before joining AICGS, he served as Director of Program Development at the University Center for International Studies at the University of Pittsburgh (1986-1988). He was also Chair of the German Speaking Areas in Europe Program at the Foreign Service Institute in Washington, DC, from 1999-2000.
Dr. Janes is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and the Atlantic Council of the United States. He serves on the advisory boards of the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee, the Allied Museum in Berlin, the World Security Network, Beirat der Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik (ZfAS), the Robert Bosch Foundation Alumni Association, and the American Bundestag Intern Network (ABIN) in Washington, DC. He is also President of the International Association for the Study of German Politics.
Dr. Janes has lectured throughout Europe and the United States and has published extensively on issues dealing with Germany, German-American relations, and transatlantic affairs. In addition to regular commentary given to European and American news radio, he has appeared on CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, PBS, CBC, and is a frequent commentator on German television. Dr. Janes is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in Education.
In 2005, Dr. Janes was awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Germany’s highest civilian award.
Education:
Ph.D., International Relations, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California
M.A., Divinity School, University of Chicago
B.A., Sociology, Colgate University
Expertise:
Transatlantic relations, German-American relations, domestic German politics, German-EU relations, transatlantic affairs.
Selected Outside Publications:
Books:
“Reforming Governance – Lessons from the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany,” Edited with Franz Greß, (Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag, 2001).
“Ukraine, Europe and the United States – Towards a New Euro-Atlantic Security Architecture,” Edited with Oleg Kokoshinsky and Peter Wittschorek, Center for European Integration Studies (Schriften des Zentrums für Europäische Integrationsforschung), (Baden-Baden: Namos Verlagsgesellschaft, 2000).
“Priming the Pump: The Making of Foreign Area Experts,” IIE Research Report Number 23, (New York: Institute for International Education, 1991).
Recent Selected Articles:
“Angela Merkel’s Germany,” By Jackson Janes and Stephen Szabo, Current History, March 2007.
“A U.S.-German Agenda for Bush II,” By Jackson Janes and Eberhard Sandschneider. Transatlantic Internationale Politik, Issue 4, 2004, 3-9.
“From Alliances to Ambivalence: The Search for a Transatlantic Agenda in the 21st Century.” UC Berkley Institute for European Studies. November 2003. Working paper.
“Making Money by Doing Good.” By Jackson Janes and Tim Stuchtey. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte. 31/2008.
“The Evolution of Public Opinion Research and its Significance for the German-American Dialogue,” Politbarometer, edited by Andreas M. Wüst, Leske + Budrich, 2003, 319-325.
Dr. Jack Janes's Archive
A Century and a Half of the Social Democratic Party in Germany
The 150th anniversary of the Social Democratic Party was marked this week by a gathering of SPD leadership in Leipzig. Germany’s oldest political party reflected on its roots as a movement that began with a commitment reflected in the name of the SPD’s first formation in 1863: the Allgemeinen Deutschen Arbeiterverein (General… Read more >
The Trust Trifecta
Engraved on the U.S. dollar bill are the words “in God we trust.” The sarcastic extension of that phrase says “all others pay cash.” It seems that forces rampant in the U.S. and in Europe are trending toward a decline in trust in leaders, currency, and in governments overall. Public opinion polls… Read more >
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 >
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