AICGS Advisor - February 8, 2008

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Analysis

In this week's At Issue, Executive Director Dr. Jackson Janes, who is currently in Munich attending the 44th Annual Security Conference, discusses the debate over the role of Germany's troops in Afghanistan, which is representative of a greater debate over the future of NATO.
To read this essay, please click here.

On Tuesday February 5, twenty-four U.S. states held primary elections for the presidential race, earning the term "Super Tuesday" due to the large number of delegates available for the candidates. While the votes likely cleared up the Republican nomination, the Democrats face a long battle. Now that Super Tuesday has passed, AICGS has compiled a page of links and information regarding the impact of the race upon transatlantic relations.
To access this page of links, please click here.

AICGS would like to announce the creation of the Forum for Atlantic Climate and Energy Talks (FACET). Edited by AICGS Senior Non-resident Fellow Alexander Ochs, FACET features commentary from noted international experts and aims at enriching the transatlantic dialogue on climate change and energy by providing a forum for open exchange. Contributions are welcome!
The first focus of FACET is the most recent UN climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, featuring commentary by Camilla Bausch and Michael Mehling, Josh Busby, Jonathan Elkind, Sascha Müller-Kraenner, and Friedemann Müller.
To access FACET, please click here.

Former DAAD/AICGS Fellow Klaus Bachmann looks at the number of veto players in the United States and in the EU and assesses the different impact that veto players have in decisions made in the first pillar (economic) of the Lisbon Treaty versus in the third pillar (justice and home affairs). In his essay, "The Impact of EU Treaty Reform on Transatlantic Relations: The Cases of Open Sky and the EU-U.S. Extradition Agreement," Dr. Bachmann addresses the question of which decision-making method is more beneficial for the United States.
To read this essay, please click here (PDF).

Professor Dr. Norbert Walter, Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank Group and a former AICGS fellow, writes that despite a downswing in the U.S. economy that might last into 2009, there will not be a global recession. This article originally appeared in the February 2008 edition of The Atlantic Times.
To read this article, please click here.

Upcoming Events

On February 14, 2008, AICGS will host a presentation of the new book, "Joschka Fischer and the Making of the Berlin Republic," by Paul Hockenos. Mr. Hockenos' book is both a lively biography of one of Germany's most famous politicians and an insightful alternative history of postwar Germany. This event is made possible by the support of the AICGS Society, Culture & Politics Program, the Heinrich-Böll Foundation, and The German Marshall Fund of the United States.
For more information and to RSVP, please click here.

On February 22, 2008, AICGS will host a workshop in Brussels, Belgium, on "Ethics, Science, and Politics: The Debate about Stem Cell Research in Germany and the United States," which is undertaken with the generous support of the Robert Bosch Foundation. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and experts from Germany, the EU, and the United States, this workshop discusses the role of religion in scientific and political decisions impacting stem cell research.
For more information and to RSVP, please click here.

On February 25, 2008, AICGS will host a workshop in Brussels, Belgium, on "The European Theatre: German-American-Russian-EU Relations," which is undertaken with the generous support of The German Marshall Fund of the United States. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and experts from Germany, the EU, and the United States, this workshop discusses German and American perspectives on issues in the European theatre and the relationship between the EU, Germany, the U.S., and Russia.
For more information and to RSVP, please click here.

Announcements

AICGS would like to welcome its newest DAAD/AICGS Fellow, Ms. Almut Möller. During her stay at AICGS she will follow the U.S. presidential election campaign to assess where transatlantic relations regarding the Middle East might be moving with a new U.S. administration in office.
For a short biography of Ms. Möller, please click here.

On February 6, 2008, AICGS, in cooperation with the Representative for German Industry and Trade, and the German-American Business Council, held a workshop on the new protocol to the U.S.-German tax treaty, which entered into force in December of 2007. This workshop followed the AICGS Policy Report "Breaking Down Barriers to Trade and Investment: the U.S.-Germany Income Tax Treaty Revisited" published in 2004, in which Mr. Rafic Barrage (Mayer Brown, LLP) set forth detailed recommendations for changes to the 1989 income tax treaty between Germany and the United States. The newly implemented protocol to the tax treaty includes provisions generally adopting many of the recommendations set forth in the 2004 AICGS report.
For a summary of this event, please click here.

On January 29, 2008, AICGS hosted the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers, for a lecture on "Social Systems in Competition: Europe and America in the Globalized World." This event, which took place at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, was sponsored by the AICGS Business and Economics Program and by the Dräger-Foundation.
For a summary of this event, please click here.

AICGS would like to announce that it is now accepting applications for the DAAD/AICGS Fellowship program, sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The deadline for Fall 2008 (July 2008-December 2008) is February 28, 2008.
For application instructions and more information, please click here.

For past issues of the AICGS Advisor, please check the Advisor Archive.