AICGS Advisor - June 8, 2007

Analysis

Click here to access this week's AICGS Podcasts.

In this week's At Issue, Executive Director Dr. Jackson Janes discusses the events of the G8 Summit and concludes that Chancellor Merkel will receive good marks for finding a path towards progress on greenhouse gas reduction, but challenges still line the road to significant changes.
To read this essay, please click here.

On June 6-8, the leaders of the world's most industrialized nations met in Heiligendamm, Germany, to discuss the pressing issues facing the world today. Germany and Chancellor Merkel were on the global stage and were the subject of intense media coverage as President and host of the G8 Summit. AICGS has compiled a list of the best articles and coverage of the summit for further background on the issues that were discussed.
To access this page of links, please click here.

Professor Dr. Paul J.J. Welfens, president of the European Institute for International Economic Relations (EIIW) at the University of Wuppertal and a former DaimlerChrysler/AICGS Fellow, questions why the G8 excludes so many important developing nations, and contends that economic globalization needs to be further discussed before it is too late.
To read this essay, please click here (PDF).

How relevant is the G8 to today's world in an age of globalization? John Kornblum, an AICGS Trustee and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, looks at the G8 and determines that future international cooperation, the driving force behind such structures, will be based on constantly changing alliances rather than from the firm structures of one or more organizations. This article originally appeared in the May 29, 2007, issue of Handelsblatt.
To read this article in German, please click here.
To read this article in English, please click here.

In Issue Brief #15, Karin Johnston analyzes the challenges European countries are facing with regard to the interaction of religion and politics and how Europe's growing Muslim population will influence the debate.
To access this Issue Brief, please click here (PDF).

AICGS Trustee Stefan Baron looks back on his sixteen years as Editor of WirtschaftsWoche and argues that Germany needs the magazine to continue to be a strong voice. Baron has taken a new position as Global Head of Communications for Deutsche Bank AG, and will continue his affiliation with the AICGS in his new position.
To read this article in German, please click here.
To read this article in English, please click here.

Recently the German Embassy in Washington commissioned a poll concerning America's most important international partners, and Germany received high marks. Robert Gerald Livingston, AICGS's founding director and Senior Visiting Fellow at the German Historical Institute, examines the results of the poll and makes some interesting conclusions as to the transatlantic relationship.
To read this essay, please click here.

Former AICGS Intern Claudia Ritzi analyzes the media coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy and argues that recent trends in the media like downsizing, sensationalism, and the pervasiveness of the Internet have seriously damaged the reputation and legitimacy of the media.
To read this essay, please click here.

Announcements

AICGS would like to express its congratulations to Trustee Jan Carendi, who was recently honored by the North American Board of Rabbis at their annual Tikkun Olam Awards Dinner in New York City on June 4.

AICGS would like to congratulate former AICGS Trustee Robert Zoellick, who has been nominated to head the World Bank by President Bush. Zoellick, who was also a former U.S. Trade Representative and Deputy Secretary of State, served on the AICGS Board of Trustees from 1996-2001, and we wish him continued success in his new position.

On May 18, 2007, AICGS held a workshop in Washington, D.C., entitled "Locusts, Cowboy Capitalism, and Culture Wars: Framing 'American Conditions' in German-American Relations," part of a larger initiative entitled "Lost In Translation: The Impact of Culture on the Media in the United States and Germany."
For a summary of this event, please click here.

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