AICGS Advisor - August 16, 2007

Analysis

Click here to access this week's AICGS Podcasts.

In this week's At Issue, Executive Director Dr. Jackson Janes notes the recent anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall and discusses the legacy of the GDR, focusing on what lessons should be taken from this time and how they relate to current struggles for freedom around the world.
To read this essay, please click here.

In Policy Report #30, Professor Stephen Silvia and Dr. Michael Stolpe examine the pension and health care crises in the United States and Germany and discuss alternative proposed solutions and the prospects for a common agenda in this policy arena.
To access this Policy Report, please click here (PDF).

AICGS Trustee Dr. Josef Joffe, publisher/editor of Die Zeit, writes that Chancellor Angela Merkel's grace period has ended and she will now be faced with significant challenges at home and abroad. Dr. Joffe argues that Merkel will need to assume the 'honest broker' role played by Otto von Bismarck if she hopes to succeed. This article originally appeared in the August 5, 2007, edition of The Washington Post.
To read this article, please click here.

Dr. Markus Kaim, currently a fellow at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin and a former DAAD/AICGS Fellow, analyzes the debate in Germany over renewing the mandates allowing German troops to participate in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan in a recently-published essay for SWP. This essay originally appeared in the July 2007 edition of SWP-Aktuell.
To read this essay in German, please click here (PDF).
To read this essay in English, please click here (PDF).

In a related subject, Judy Dempsey of the International Herald Tribune examines the domestic debate over sending Germany's troops abroad, especially in Afghanistan, and how the major political parties are dealing with the growing gap between voters' opinions and the expectations of the international community. This article originally appeared in the August 9, 2007, edition of the International Herald Tribune.
To read this article, please click here.

Dr. Falk Bomsdorf, director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's Moscow Bureau and a participant in AICGS's current project on Russia, writes about what he calls the 'rebirth' of Russia fifteen years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Dr. Bomsdorf argues that Russia's recent activity in the international arena is a sign of an aggressive strategy aimed at returning Russia to its former superpower status. This essay was originally published in June 2007 by Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik and is available in German only.
To read this essay, please click here (PDF).
To listen to an AICGS Podcast with Mr. Bomsdorf, please click here.

In Issue Brief #16, "Religion and World Politics: A Structural Approach," Timothy Byrnes examines three religious communities and their relationships with the processes of European integration, concluding that religion, as a political force, will be more likely to hinder the further integration of the European continent than to advance it.
To access this Issue Brief, please click here (PDF).

Announcements

On September 12, 2007, AICGS will host a presentation of a unique and innovative method of political participation and mass communication developed at the Free University of Berlin and the University of Applied Science Brandenburg. "Straight2thecandidates.com" is a grass-roots project run in cooperation with students and scholars from various universities in Germany and the United States. At this event, the idea behind the website and its possible impact upon the election will be examined, as well as the role of new web-based media outlets in politics.
To RSVP and for more information, please click here.

On behalf of the American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, AICGS would like to announce two fellowship opportunities which have upcoming deadlines. The German Chancellor Fellowship provides for a stay of one year in Germany for professional development, study, or research for young professional citizens of the United States; the deadline for this fellowship is October 31, 2007. The Sofja Kovalevskaja Award enables exceptionally promising junior scientists and scholars with outstanding research records to concentrate on high-level, innovative research in Germany; the deadline for this fellowship is January 4, 2008.
For more information on the German Chancellor Fellowship, please click here.
For more information on the Sofja Kovalevskaja Fellowship, please click here.

On July 24, 2007, AICGS, in cooperation with the Hanns Seidel Foundation, hosted a luncheon with Dr. Thomas Silberhorn, Member of the German Bundestag from the CSU, who presented his party's views on the most important security and defense issues facing Germany today. Dr. Silberhorn discussed the challenges of gaining support for sending German troops abroad, the role of ISAF in Afghanistan, and the chances of independence for Kosovo, among other subjects, at this event.
For a summary of this event, please click here.

AICGS is now accepting nominations for the 2007 DAAD Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in German and European Studies. This year's prize will be awarded in the field of the Humanities; the winner will be awarded at the Institute's annual Global Leadership Award Dinner on November 15, 2007.
For nomination instructions and more information, please click here.

AICGS is seeking an Associate Director to serve as deputy to the Executive Director with management and oversight responsibilities for the Institute's general operation and staff and in particular for the AICGS Research Program.
For application instructions and more information, please click here.

AICGS is now accepting applications for the Spring 2008 session of the DAAD/AICGS Fellowship program. The program is designed to bring scholars and specialists working on Germany, Europe, and/or transatlantic relations to AICGS for research stays of two months each.
For application instructions and more information, please click here.

AICGS is pleased to announce its thirteenth annual Global Leadership Award Dinner, honoring Dr. Josef Ackermann, Chairman of the Managing Board and the Group Executive Committee of Deutsche Bank AG, on November 15, 2007, in New York City. Please join us for this special evening in honor of Dr. Ackermann.
For more information about the dinner, please click here.

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