AICGS Advisor - March 2, 2007

Analysis

As religious diversity increases in Germany and the U.S., how are societies dealing with the changes that accompany such diversity? This issue and more are addressed in German-American Issues #7, "Reconciling Religion and Public Life: Essays on Pluralism and Fundamentalism in the United States and Germany," by Patrick J. Deneen, Türkan Karakurt, Charles T. Mathewes, Erik Owens, and Rolf Schieder. This publication is the culmination of an AICGS project examining perceptions of religious pluralism and religious fundamentalism in the United States and Germany.
To access this publication, please click here (PDF).

New DAAD/AICGS Fellow Dr. Gunther Hellmann discusses Germany's approach towards Russia and contends that the success of a new EU Russia policy is dependent upon Germany's internal discourse in his article, "Deutschland, Europa und der Osten." This version of the article appeared in the March 1, 2007, Rheinischer Merkur, but it originally appeared in the March 2007 edition of Internationale Politik. It is available in German only.
To read this article, please click here.

AICGS non-resident Senior Fellow John Starrels analyzes U.S.-EU economic relations and discusses what hurdles the transatlantic relationship could face in the run-up to the 2008 U.S. presidential election in his essay, "The U.S. and Europe: Moving Toward 2008."
To read this essay, please click here.

In his essay "Atlantic Integration: Don't Discard it for the Wrong Reasons!", Dr. Jens van Scherpenberg, Senior Fellow at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin and a frequent participant in AICGS events, writes that transatlantic economic integration is threatened by the temptation to resort to protectionist policies, a feeling that is growing among domestic political constituencies. However, Dr. van Scherpenberg argues that the costs of non-integration are high already and will further increase for the Atlantic economic area if action is not taken. This article originally appeared in the January/February 2007 edition of Intereconomics.
To read this article, please click here (PDF).

Former DAAD/AICGS Fellow Dr. Sebastian Dullien, economics correspondent and columnist at the Financial Times Deutschland, writes that Europeans believe that a change of power in the White House might result in better relations with the U.S., but that this is an errant thought because a Democrat might demand the European Union's contribution to the war in Iraq, something the EU is not enthusiastic about. This article originally appeared in the February 26, 2007, Financial Times Deutschland and is only available in German.
To read this article, please click here (PDF).

In Issue Brief # 13, "Disturbing Fundamentalism," which is part of the AICGS Project on Religion and Politics in Germany, Europe, and the United States, Dr. Joshua Yates outlines what the relationship between modernity and fundamentalism is. In his Issue Brief, Dr. Yates further examines if religion presents a threat to secular Western societies.
To access this Issue Brief, please click here (PDF).

Announcements

One of the earliest reforms adopted by the current Grand Coalition government concerned reshaping the German system of federalism. On March 6, 2007, Professor Dr. Henrik Enderlein of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin will assess the prospects for institutional reform of German fiscal federalism. He will review some of the main problems of the current framework in Germany before presenting an international comparison of different types of fiscal federalism. Dr. Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute for International Economics will provide commentary.
To RSVP and for more information, please click here.

On March 8, 2007, AICGS will co-host a discussion on the recently-released book "The Strategic Triangle: France, Germany, and the United States in the Shaping of the New Europe," edited by Helga Haftendorn, Georges-Henri Soutou, Stephen F. Szabo, and Samuel F. Wells, Jr. This book discusses a series of economic and diplomatic episodes and asks how they affected the countries' relations with each other, with countries outside this triangle, and with international institutions such as the EU and NATO, concentrating on the period of 1965-95. This event is co-sponsored by the European Studies Program of Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
To RSVP and for more information, please click here.

AICGS is pleased to welcome its newest DAAD/AICGS Fellow, Dr. Gunther Hellmann. Dr. Hellmann is professor at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University at Frankfurt am Main, specializing in International Relations, and will be focusing on transatlantic relations in the context of German grand strategy while at AICGS.
For a short biography of Dr. Hellmann, please click here.

On February 23, 2007, AICGS hosted a roundtable discussion with DAAD/AICGS Fellow Dr. Sebastian Dullien, centering on why the German economic situation might continue to improve over the next few years. Commentary was provided by Professor Stephen Silvia, Director of Doctoral Studies at American University's School of International Service.
For a summary of this event, please click here.

On February 14, 2007, AICGS was pleased to welcome Professor Dr. Norbert Walter, chief economist of the Deutsche Bank Group and managing director of Deutsche Bank Research, for a talk on the future of the German economy. During his presentation Dr. Walter generally conveyed the belief that Germany is back on track and that it will remain there, yet pointed to various aspects of the health and social systems that should be of concern for the government and a focus for reform efforts.
For a summary of this event, please click here.

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