Lily Gardner Feldman
Dr. Lily Gardner Feldman is currently the Harry & Helen Gray Senior Fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University, where she has recently published a book entitled “Germany’s Foreign Policy of Reconciliation: From Enmity to Amity” (Rowman & Littlefield). She also directs the Institute’s Society, Culture & Politics Program. She has a Ph.D. in Political Science from MIT.
From 1978 until 1991, Dr. Gardner Feldman was a professor of political science (tenured) at Tufts University in Boston. She was also a Research Associate at Harvard University’s Center for European Studies, where she chaired the German Study Group and edited German Politics and Society; and a Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, where she chaired the Seminar on the European Community and undertook research in the University Consortium for Research on North America. From 1990 until 1995, Dr. Gardner Feldman was the first Research Director of AICGS and its Co-director in 1995. From 1995 until 1999, she was a Senior Scholar in Residence at the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University. She returned to Johns Hopkins University in 1999.
Dr. Gardner Feldman has published widely in the U.S. and Europe on German foreign policy, German-Jewish relations, international reconciliation, non-state entities as foreign policy players, and the EU as an international actor. Her work on Germany’s foreign policy of reconciliation has led to lecture tours in Japan and South Korea.
Contact Dr. Feldman:
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Tel: 202-332-0054
Selected Publications:
“The Role of History in Germany’s Foreign Policy of Reconciliation: Principle and Practice,” in Opening Historical Reconciliation in East Asia through the Historical Dialogue, Proceedings of the First International Forum on Historical Reconciliation in East Asia (Seoul: Northeast Asian History Foundation, 2009)
“German-Polish Reconciliation in Comparative Perspective: Lessons for Japan?” The Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, April 2010.
Lily Gardner Feldman's Archive
The Official German Commitment to Fighting Anti-Semitism
Budapest On May 6, 2013, in a major speech to the World Jewish Congress in Budapest, German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle continued an official German tradition. Like German foreign ministers and chancellors before him, he enunciated the five golden rules of Germany’s postwar commitment to Jews: acknowledgement of the breadth and depth… Read more >
The Franco-German Elysée Treaty at Fifty: A Model for Others?
The fiftieth anniversary of the 1963 Elysée Treaty provides occasion for reflection on the larger meaning of this landmark for Franco-German relations, but also raises the question of whether its benefits might help other pairs of countries struggling with issues of reconciliation. The Franco-German treaty was viewed subsequently by the German government… Read more >
Scenarios for the Future of the EU: Disintegrating, Diffident or Decisive?
Three Scenarios As the U.S. recalibrates its relationship with the EU in the second Obama administration, it behooves observers to contemplate different trajectories for the EU’s future. The three possible scenarios of Disintegrating Europe, Diffident Europe, and Decisive Europe range from a pessimistic outlook to an optimistic one. In Disintegrating Europe, current… Read more >
Personal Reconciliation between Germans and Jews
The Many Levels of Reconciliation The award of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union has focused attention on how governments in Europe have built lasting reconciliation. Studies of reconciliation have also addressed the critical, catalytic role of societal groups in bringing about and maintaining reconciliation. Much less attention has… Read more >
It’s Not Only the Economy: Germany’s role in averting a Western meltdown
Download Policy Report The observed capital flows out of distressed countries into countries that are seen as “safe harbors” have in fact resulted in historically low yields of German and U.S. government bonds and helped the respective government budgeting. However, the current trading levels are unlikely to be sustainable and should not… Read more >
What Really Must Be Said
As the dust slowly begins to settle following the uproar created by Günter Grass’s poem on Israel’s military stance towards Iran, Harry & Helen Gray Senior Fellow Dr. Lily Gardner Feldman takes an opportunity to highlight four lessons that relate to a larger context surrounding this affair: the depth, complexity, and fundamental stability of German-Israeli relations.
Constructive Power and Reconciliation: The Importance of German Societal Organizations
The Importance of German Societal Actors The Euro-zone crisis has focused international attention on Germany’s power, depicting the Federal Republic either as selfless savior (constructive power) or as dictatorial demon (dominant power), depending on observers’ nationality and profession. The spotlight has turned mainly on the motivations and maneuverability of Chancellor Angela Merkel… Read more >
The Many Sides of Muslim Integration: A German-American Comparison
While analyses on the integration of immigrants and especially Muslim immigrants have multiplied in recent years, debates in the U.S. and Germany differ on these issues. Even though the U.S. and German debates are clearly different, a comparison of Muslim integration in the U.S. and in Europe is still drawn frequently, and many assumptions are made regarding the other side’s policies. In German-American Issues 13, “The Many Sides of Muslim Integration: A German-American Comparison,” authors Tara Bahrampour, Rauf Ceylan, Ariane Chebel d’Appollonia, Raida Chbib, Lily Gardner Feldman, and Mathias Rohe examine and challenge these assumptions, focusing on a range of major issues surrounding the debate.
Religion and Public Policy: A German-American Comparison
AICGS is pleased to present German-American Issues 9, “Religion and Public Policy: A German-American Comparison.” The essays presented in this publication examine the issues of faith-based initiatives, stem cell research, and religious education from both German and American perspectives, and discuss how religion is understood in the public sphere, whether cultural or historical sensitivities constrain policymakers’ choices, and how religious concerns can be incorporated into a decision-making process that is not necessarily designed to account for these concerns.
Sixty Years After the Founding of the Jewish State: Are German-Israeli Relations Still “Special”?
In the sixty years since Israel’s founding, German-Israeli relations have been nothing if not complex. On the occasion of Israel’s sixtieth anniversary, the essays in German-American Issues 8 examine the issues of remembrance, the fading of the survivor generation, the new challenges faced by both countries in the twenty-first century, and the idea of a “normal” relationship between Germany and Israel. This volume features essays written by Michael Brenner, Lily Gardner Feldman, Harald Kindermann, Shimon Stein, and Frank Stern.
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