Recent conflicts with Russia over its supply of energy to Europe has highlighted the issue of energy security in Europe. Dr. Jörg Himmelreich, Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, discusses the current state of European energy supply in an article that originally appeared in the January 12, 2007, Der Tagesspiegel.
To read this article, please click here (German only).

Secondly, Ulrich Speck, a journalist and foreign policy analyst for Die Zeit and a former DAAD/AICGS Fellow, writes that the clash between Russia and Belarus makes clear the fact that Europe must urgently address the security of its long-term energy supply.
To read this article, please click here (German only).

AICGS has recently begun a project analyzing German and American approaches to the challenges of securing reliable energy sources into the future; the reports resulting from this project will be released in the near future.

Dr. Jens van Scherpenberg, Senior Fellow at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin and a frequent participant in AICGS events, writes that the EU and U.S. must reevaluate their economic partnership to prevent future conflicts from occurring, especially due to future discussions of a Transatlantic Free Trade Area. This article originally appeared in the January 9, 2007, edition of Handelsblatt.

Professor Fritz Stern, University Professor Emeritus and former provost at Columbia University, has established himself as one of the preeminent interpreters of the German past, and his recent memoir, Five Germanys I Have Known, is a reflection of the central issue of modern history. A distinguished panel will examine the issues of German history that Professor Stern touches upon in his memoir on January 29, 2007.

In an article titled "A World at Risk," Dr. Josef Joffe, Publisher and Editor of Die Zeit and an AICGS Trustee, argues that the world has become far more dangerous since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and that there is no one left to provide order. He writes that America has the power to provide the needed force in the world, but no longer has the legitimacy to do so. This article originally appeared in the January 2007 edition of The Atlantic Times.

Dr. Soli Özel, professor of international relations at Istanbul Bilgi University and a regular participant in AICGS conferences on Turkey, writes that despite many reasons that should repel Turkey from the Western world, most Turkish citizens are eager to gain greater acceptance by Europe and the U.S. This essay originally appeared in the Winter 2007 version of The Wilson Quarterly.

Stefan Theil, correspondent for Newsweek International and a regular contributor to AICGS, writes about how Germany's communist past is quietly being eliminated from public memory and argues that now is the time for an honest reckoning with the country's communist history. This article originally appeared in the January 15, 2007, edition of Newsweek International.

Dr. Sebastian Dullien, AICGS's newest DAAD/AICGS Fellow and an economics correspondent and columnist at the Financial Times Deutschland, writes that the "pay-as-you-go" budget rule recently re-instituted by the U.S. Congress should be a model for the German system as the economy attempts to gain positive momentum. This article originally appeared in the January 16, 2007, Financial Times Deutschland.

German politicians are finding themselves caught in the middle between employers' need to cut costs on the one hand and anger from voters about factory closings and job cuts on the other, writes John Kornblum, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany and an AICGS Trustee. Kornblum argues that a new public-private partnership is needed to fully implement necessary reforms in the German economy; this article originally appeared in the December 20, 2006, Süddeutsche Zeitung and is available in English and in German.

To read this article in German, please click here.

On January 10, 2007, President Bush announced that the U.S. would send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. In light of this decision, AICGS has compiled a page of links comprising the German reaction to the President's announcement.

AICGS is pleased to welcome its newest DAAD/AICGS Fellow, Dr. Sebastian Dullien. During his stay at AICGS, Dr. Dullien will be researching how the United States system of unemployment insurance might provide lessons for the European Monetary Union.

On December 14, 2006, AICGS was pleased to welcome Mr. Wolfgang Münchau, Associate Editor of the Financial Times Deutschland, and Dr. Adam Posen, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, for a roundtable discussion. A video of this event, titled "The End of the Social Market Economy: Germany's Choices and Chances in Global Competition," is now available online; AICGS would like to thank Fora.tv for its cooperation in making a video of this event possible.

AICGS is seeking a part-time Research and Administrative Assistant to assist the Research Director. Primarily, the Assistant will support the Research Program Director with program-related correspondence and activities, coordinate his travel arrangements, and support the Research Program staff with the coordination of research program events.