Stephan Kieninger holds a PhD in Modern History from Mannheim University and had previously been a Wilson Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a postdoc at Johns Hopkins SAIS, a fellow at the Berlin Center for Cold War Studies, and a Senior Researcher at the Federal German Archives.
He is the author of three books on U.S. foreign policy and European security in the Cold War and after: Securing Peace in Europe. Strobe Talbott, NATO, and Russia after the Cold War (Columbia University Press, 2025), The Diplomacy of Detente. Cooperative Security Policies from Helmut Schmidt to George Shultz (Routledge, 2018), Dynamic Détente: The United States and Europe, 1964–1975 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016), and has received fellowships from the German Historical Institute, the Hoover Institution, and the German Academic Exchange Service.
The Secret of Strobe Talbott’s and Bill Clinton’s Friendship
New Insight from Strobe Talbott’s Diaries Senior staff turnovers within the White House or the executive branch are not uncommon. There are many reasons, including firing, exhaustion, overwork, political loyalty, …
Strobe Talbott and the Rise of the Liberal Post-Cold War Order
Currently, we are witnessing enormous stress on the institutions established in the post-Cold War era. A new era of great power competition and a revival of authoritarianism threaten to undermine …
The Nord Stream 2 Debate and Russia’s Gas Weapon
“Nord Stream 2 was a mistake,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently said during his first official visit to the White House. President Donald Trump appreciated these remarks, reminding reporters that he …
Thirty Years of German Unity
AGI Project
Helmut Kohl and NATO Enlargement: The Search for the Post-Cold War Order
NATO Enlargement as Order-Building Diplomacy Helmut Kohl’s achievements as a statesman go well beyond Germany’s unification. In the second half of his sixteen-year tenure, Kohl played a major role in …
Promoting Integration and Avoiding Isolation. A Brief History of Germany’s Participation in NATO’s Nuclear Statecraft
Currently, Germany is struggling to decide on a successor for its aging Tornado aircraft. Some of the ancient Tornados are essential to carry forward deployed U.S. nuclear bombs and thus …
Fifty Years since Ostpolitik. How Willy Brandt’s Diplomacy Transformed Europe
It is fifty years since the start of Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik. Brandt was a peculiar figure in contemporary history. Brandt’s dropping to his knees in front of the Warsaw Ghetto …
