Germany’s Population is Growing and Changing as It Adjusts to New Realities
In January, Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Statistisches Bundesamt) announced that the country’s population is likely growing again—a direct result of an increase in immigration since 2012. The latest preliminary survey results indicate …
Principle, Policy, and Purpose: The Balance of Values and Interests
The American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once stated that the essence of statecraft is locating the point of concurrence between the parochial and the general interest, between the national and international common good.[1] Niebuhr emphasizes that realism implies an obligation to see the world as it actually is, not as we might like it to be. He warned that hubris can blind realism, finding expression in outsized confidence in both the power as well as the values of a country as being universal. Any country is susceptible to such temptations.
Demolition Enterprise Trump: A Manual for Saving the Transatlantic Relationship
Transatlantic relations play an important role in how the West reacts to the challenges of the twenty-first century, and certain measures must be taken to maintain the relationship under the …
Germany Cannot Replace the U.S., But Europe Can Live with Trump
There is ample evidence that there has been a major shift toward a greater international role for Germany and that the public is gradually accepting such a bigger role. Germany …
The Transatlantic Alliance: Between Reassurance and Renewal
There is a well-known warning to all politicians seeking to sound convincing to their audiences: if you have to explain too much, you are losing them. If there are too many ambiguities in a message, you trip yourself up justifying them. The platform of the Munich Security Conference is a tough testing ground for all politicians given the enormous concentration on what is discussed there. This year’s meeting was no exception.
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Support Our WorkGlobalization: As Bad as Its Reputation?
There are rough times ahead for the ideas of free trade and globalization. U.S. president Donald Trump (who seems to prefer less rather than more economic openness), the Brexit vote, …
The New Parameters of German Foreign Policy
The election of Donald Trump threatens to radically change the parameters of German foreign policy that go back to the foundation of the Federal Republic in 1949. Germany has benefited …
MSC 2017: The World at a Crossroads
The Munich Security Conference has had many memorable milestones over the last half century; I have been privileged to experience several. The famous “I am not convinced” exchange between Joschka Fischer …
Dangerous Silence
It is not the first time the Bundeswehr is engaged in the Baltic States. For a number of years, the German air force has participated as a rotating member in …
Uncertainty Surrounds the Putin-Trump Relationship
Few issues stir more concerns—and confusion—about where the Trump administration is heading than relations with Russia. Several Cabinet secretaries, during their confirmation hearings and subsequent statements, voiced strong support for …
Expectations for the Munich Security Conference
The Munich Security Conference convenes at a time of the great unraveling of the world order. The world is less stable and more uncertain than it has been for years. …
Berlin’s New Pragmatism in an Era of Radical Uncertainty
Germany has emerged as the EU’s central economic and political power in today’s crisis-ridden Europe. The U.K., after the Brexit vote, has probably dropped out of global crisis management for …
Working Against Mental Shortcuts: Learning to Value Different and Complex World Views
“This is how the Americans truly are…” is a sentence we keep hearing in Germany these days. We keep trying to summarize people from or living in certain countries as …
From the AGI Bookshelf: A World in Disarray
Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, has to have a broad horizon when looking at the world, as he shows in his latest book, A World in …
