Can the German Obsession with Balanced Budgets Be Overcome?
For many years international observers, including U.S. Nobel laureates like Paul Krugman and Robert Solow, have been wondering about certain peculiarities in German economic reasoning and economic policy. These seem …
Fiscal Stimulus for the European Economy: The Right Thing?
With weaker economic growth in Europe, the idea is being resurrected that European governments, or at least those with “enough fiscal space,” should stimulate their economies by increasing government debt …
Rethinking U.S.-EU Trade: From FTA to SEA
Phil Hogan, the new European Commissioner for Trade, is traveling to Washington this week to seek a “reset of the EU/US trade relationship,” which has been under strain. President Trump called …
Will There Be a German Trump?
Germany has been a model country for decades overcoming a dark past. Contemporary Germans have learned the lessons of their history and have resisted the temptations of a resurgent nationalism …
The 100th Anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles
Among the many important dates that we largely overlooked is the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, the treaty that ended the state of war between Germany and the …
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A Tale of Two Futures: The Future of Work Debate in Germany and the U.S.
The future of work is, in many respects, now. Digital technologies are driving enormous change processes in the economy and society with impacts reaching far beyond Silicon Valley, stretching even …
Dusting Off Local Politics: New Ideas for Political Participation in Rust Belt Cities
Our world today is increasingly marked by social divisions. The political fault lines can be witnessed between liberals and conservatives, generationally between millennials and boomers, or geographically between urban and rural …
Hidden in Plain Sight: The Life and Message of Raymonde Fiol
A Call from the Past It was a Saturday in 2007. Raymonde Fiol was sitting on a sofa in her home in Las Vegas. The phone rang. She answered. The …
The German SPD and the Curse of Corbynisation
On December 12, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party slipped to inglorious defeat in what was Britain’s third general election in four years. Labour’s worst result since 1935 leaves the party no …
The Afghanistan War: Collective Memory Formation in the United States and Germany
More than eighteen years have passed since October 2001, when U.S. forces were deployed to Afghanistan after the Taliban regime refused to extradite Osama bin Laden and shut down Al-Qaeda …
Negotiating for the Future: Lessons for American Diplomacy from German Unification
With Robert Zoellick and Horst Teltschik On December 9, 2019, AICGS presented a lecture by Robert Zoellick on “Negotiating for the Future: Lessons for American Diplomacy from German Unification.” Mr. …
A Farewell to Power: Germany’s Social Democratic Party After the Election of a New Party Leadership
The Social Democratic Party, Germany’s oldest democratic party which emerged from an early German labor movement, survived the challenge of communism after World War I, was forced into exile during …
Social Democracy in Search of Its Identity
Despite untamed global capitalism and growing inequality within advanced economies, the traditional left continues to be in sharp decline. Social democratic parties lost significant support in almost all Western democracies, …
Maneuvering Around the Middle: Party Politics in 2020
In the last two weeks, four political parties in Germany have gathered at their annual conferences to start positioning themselves for the next federal election, currently scheduled for 2021. In …
