Welcome to the September edition of the American Friends of Bucerius newsletter.
A year ago, we asked you to support AFB and you generously responded. Thanks to your contribution, we have been able to provide members access to important discussions and lectures led by leading policymakers, scholars and experts in international law. Our events have not only been stimulating, but also have provided ideal opportunities for members of the Bucerius community to come together.
As AFB enters its second year, we look forward to your continued backing, and hope that you will help us to achieve yet another year of great events. For this reason, I would like to ask you to consider renewing your membership.
And we have additional reason for celebration: 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of the ZEIT-Stiftung, the 10th anniversary of the International Program and the 5th full year of the Master of Law and Business program at Bucerius Law School. We are pleased to inaugurate a new section of the newsletter that will feature articles from prominent authors of Germany's leading weekly DIE ZEIT. For the section's first article, Theo Sommer, longtime Editor-in-Chief and Publisher for DIE ZEIT, contributes a thoughtful appraisal of the world post-9/11. Sommer has been with the magazine since 1958 and is considered one of Germany's foremost authorities in international relations and security issues.
In addition, we are proud to feature an interview with renowned Indian politician and prolific author Shashi Tharoor as he prepares to moderate the inaugural ZEIT-Stiftung's Asian Forum on October 16th-25th. This annual forum will bring together promising business representatives, politicians and academics, ages 28 to 35, from around the world to discuss political issues regarding Asia.
In this month's newsletter, we also include some background on an interesting public event within the context of the biannual Transatlantic Policy Workshop-- part of the ZEIT-Stiftung's international Ph.D. Program "Settling Into Motion - Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarships in Migration Studies". The workshop will focus on international migration policy and a reception will be hosted by Deutsche Bank in New York on October 21st. Angela Maria Kelley, Vice-President for Immigration Policy and Advocacy at the Center for American Progress, has agreed to be the keynote speaker that evening.
Finally, we are happy to inform you that we have moved our office. As of September 1st, you can find AFB at 10 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.
As always, we value your input tremendously. Please stay connected with us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
With best regards,
Dr. Nina Smidt
President, American Friends of Bucerius |
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An Exclusive Article by Theo Sommer for the AFB newsletter
 Each edition of the AFB newsletter will feature a thought-provoking article from either Theo Sommer or Matthias Nass, or one of the other prominent authors of Germany's leading weekly DIE ZEIT. This inaugural piece gives an overview of the changed landscape of international politics in the ten years since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, as debated by participants of the 11th annual Bucerius Summer School program and reported by longtime ZEIT editor-in-chief Theo Sommer:
Just a week after the first class of the Bucerius Summer School returned from Hamburg, three Boeing jets highjacked by Al Qaeda crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The world, so it seemed, had changed forever; a clash of civilizations pitting fundamentalist Arabs against the West loomed on the horizon.
Ten years later we know that this was an erroneous expectation. The world has changed, indeed, but in ways hardly anyone imagined.
Click here to read the full article. |
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Event Spotlight: September 16th Discussion with Abdullah Akyuz
 Turkey today is a country full of optimism and growth. It has enjoyed political stability for the last decade under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and seems to be moving permanently away from military rule, as evidenced by the resignation of four of the country's top military commanders. As the recent visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton illustrated, Turkey's international and regional influence is growing, as well. The country has long been a regional mediator and was praised in the international community for its handling of the crisis in Egypt. And its economy has enjoyed 200 percent growth over an eight-year period.
But questions remain about the country's future. While the specter of military rule is receding, there are growing concerns about the concentration of power in the prime minister's office and the impartiality of the judicial system. The push for EU membership has stalled, the Cyprus problem remains, the country still must resolve issues with its Kurdish population, and the Arab Spring is exposing difficulties in Turkey's foreign policies.
Turkey's economic and political growth in the last decade has implications, and lessons, for the entire Middle East.
Abdullah Akyuz is president of the Turkish Industry and Business Association's U.S. office (TUSIAD-US). As an economist, he has held key leadership positions with the Istanbul Stock Exchange since the exchange's inception in 1990. Before that, he served on the Capital Markets Board, the Turkish equivalent of the SEC.
Click here for more information on the event. |
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Event Spotlight: October 17th Discussion with Dr. Isobel Coleman
 It's accepted in foreign policy circles that improving the status of women is one of the most critical levers in international development. When women have both regular access to education and regular control of income, infant mortality rates decline, child nutrition improves, population growth slows and economies expand.
Yet, in the Middle East, as well as in many parts of Africa and Asia, gaps in access to education and health care and unequal treatment before the law keep women in many developing countries from being fully productive members of society. If there is to be a new democratic era in the Middle East, these problems must be addressed by governments, NGOs and the private sector.
Join us for a lively discussion on this topic with Dr. Isobel Coleman, a senior fellow on the Council of Foreign Relations. Coleman is the director of both the Council's Women and Foreign Policy Program and its Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy initiative. The author of several books on the Middle East, she was named one of "150 Women who Shake the World" by Newsweek in 2011.
Click here for more information on the event. |
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Event Spotlight: October 21st Reception for the 2011 Transatlantic Policy Workshop
 There will be a reception for the Transatlantic Policy Workshop program of "Settling Into Motion - the Bucerius Ph.D. Scholarships in Migration Studies". Angela Maria Kelley, Vice-President of Immigration Policy and Advocacy at the Center for American Progress, will provide the keynote address. The reception will conclude the New York portion of this workshop devoted to international migration and immigration issues, including questions about immigration policy, census methods, undocumented immigrants, the pathways to citizenship and voter mobilization. The workshop also takes place in Washington D.C.
Workshop events in New York are organized in cooperation with the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Professor John Mollenkopf, the Carnegie Council and Deutsche Bank.
Click here for more information on the event. |
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Event Spotlight: November 9th Transatlantic Keynote Lecture with Senator Tom Daschle
 Hosted by Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany, in cooperation with American Friends of Bucerius and Clifford Chance LLP.
Twenty years after the implosion of the Soviet Union and the subsequent end of the Cold War, an unprecedented era of global policy turmoil has emerged. The international political system is changing rapidly, with shifts in economic and political power that are affecting U.S. foreign policy. At the same time, the United States is undergoing economic and social changes within its own borders, changes which have ramifications for the country's role abroad. How can U.S. policy address the questions of this new era?
Senator Tom Daschle is vice-chair of the National Democratic Institute and a board member of the Center for American Progress. He has been active in U.S. politics for over thirty years. Daschle was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 and to the U.S. Senate eight years later. In 1992 he became Democratic Senate Leader. He served as a National Co-Chair to Barack Obama's 2004 presidential campaign.
The discussion is moderated by Dr. Michael Werz, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress and Board Member, American Friends of Bucerius.
Click here for more information on the event. |
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Event Recap: June 15th Luncheon with Friedrich Merz
 Friedrich Merz, a Partner at Mayer Brown LLP and the Chairman of the Atlantik-Br�cke, discussed the budget crisis and European integration on June 15th as part of the American Council on Germany and American Friends of Bucerius' Transatlantic Global Agenda series. The event was held in cooperation with the Atlantik-Br�cke and hosted by Alston + Bird LLP.
David W. Detjen, Partner at Alston + Bird, opened the program by noting the shift in wealth to Asia since the Cold War. He also remarked on the competition for increasingly scarce resources and the importance of technology in business transactions; what happens in the euro zone will have repercussions around the world.
Turning to the crisis in Europe, Mr. Merz said it is not a currency crisis. The euro has fulfilled its promise as a stable currency - more stable than the Deutsche Mark. He emphasized, however, that a single currency does not make a union. There is a need for political union as well.
Click here to read the full event recap. |
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Interview with Shashi Tharoor on the inaugural Asian Forum on Global Governance
 The inaugural Asian Forum on Global Governance will take place from October 16th through October 25th, 2011 in New Delhi, India. The topic is "Traditional & Non-Traditional Security Threats in Asia". The forum will take a close look at Asian security and the challenges facing the global community. The Dean and Moderator of the Forum is Shashi Tharoor, former UN Undersecretary General, former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, a current member of Parliament and a prolific author.
Recently, Mr. Tharoor sat down for an interview with ZEIT-Stiftung. You can read an exclusive condensed excerpt of the interview below.
ZEIT-Stiftung: Why are you politically and socially active?
Shashi Tharoor: I've always sought to work for a more socially and politically cohesive world that tolerates difference and embraces pluralism and multiculturalism. India, in many ways, is the epitome of what we see around the world. All kinds of people make up India - people who could be divided by race, language, religion, colour, political orientations, ideologies and individual preferences, but who have made those differences a source of unity rather than division. India is today perhaps the most fascinating experiment in democracy and diversity ever witnessed and I'm privileged to be part of this experiment.
Click here to read the rest of the interview. |
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Alumn Spotlight: Cristina Dragomir
 Cristina Dragomir, a visiting lecturer at Pratt Institute, participated in the "Settling into Motion" Ph.D scholarship program for 2010-2011. At the institute, she studies the experiences of immigrant women in the U.S. military.
What one aspect of the Bucerius experience is the most important for you?
It was great presenting my work to my peers and faculty at our annual meeting in Hamburg. The feedback I received was very helpful.
What did you like the most about your time with Bucerius and the ZEIT-Stiftung?
I enjoyed networking with my fellows. Also, everything was taken care of for us, to the smallest detail.
Click here to read the rest of the interview. |
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Bucerius Law School Partners with DLA Piper LLP
Bucerius Law School and American Friends of Bucerius (AFB) are pleased to announce their new partnership with DLA Piper LLP, the world's largest law firm with 4,200 lawyers in 30 countries.
DLA Piper will support Bucerius Law School's and AFB's expanding activities in the areas of Intellectual Property, Information Technology & Media Law. The firm and the law school will continue to collaborate on many ventures, including the popular IP Lecture Series. The series, which has brought internationally-renowned scholars and practitioners to Hamburg since 2009, has expanded in 2010 to include events jointly hosted by AFB and DLA Piper in New York, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley.
Click here for more information on the partnership with DLA Piper and the IP and Media Law Lecture Series in the U.S. |
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News from the International Programs at Bucerius Law School
 The fourth annual Bucerius Summer Program in International Business Law concluded on August 12th. More than three dozen students and graduates from 19 countries participated in the program taught by leading legal professors and practitioners, including Prof. Dr. Franco Ferrari (New York University, USA) and Prof. Dr. Stefan Vogenauer (Oxford University, Brasenose College, UK). Outside of the classroom, participants visited the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, toured the city of L�beck and enjoyed an evening out sponsored by Linklaters LLP, a supporter of the Summer Program.
Click here for more information on the Summer Program.
 Bucerius Law School is pleased to celebrate its 10th annual Bucerius Exchange Program in International and Comparative Law. The incoming international class is the program's largest yet, consisting of a diverse selection of 110 students from 53 partner universities in 24 countries. As in the past, courses will be taught in English by leading guest academics and professionals, including several Bucerius professors. In addition to a challenging academic curriculum, the program also will include extracurricular offerings for students to better acquaint themselves with Hamburg and Germany's culture, politics, art and history.
Click here for more information on the International Exchange Program. |
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