From Convention Season to the Final Campaign Stretch

Two months before Election Day, both parties offer competing visions to U.S. voters, and the American public receives and perceives these messages differently. At this critical time, it is essential to explore the core values and issues that define what it means to be a Democrat or Republican in today’s political climate. On September 5, the ACG and more than two dozen transatlantic organizations will host a virtual discussion with Ambassador John B. Emerson, Chairman of the ACG and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, and Dr. Daniel S. Hamilton, Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins University SAIS. We will consider what these competing visions mean for Europe and global affairs and assess the state of down-ballot races, examining how elections for Congress, state governments, and local offices might impact the transatlantic partnership. The discussion will be moderated by Tina Höfinghoff, Founder of Transatlantic Hub.

Ambassador John B. Emerson was named Chairman of the American Council on Germany on January 17, 2018. He is Vice Chairman at Capital Group International. Previously, he was U.S. Ambassador to Germany from 2013 to 2017. In 2015, Ambassador Emerson received the State Department’s Sue M. Cobb Award for Exemplary Diplomatic Service, an award given annually to one non-career Ambassador. In 2017, the Secretary of the Navy and the Director of the CIA awarded him their highest civilian honors for his service.

Prior to accepting the ambassadorial posting, John Emerson was President of Private Client Services for the Capital Group Companies. Before joining Capital, he was Deputy Assistant to President Clinton where he coordinated his economic conferences, served as the president’s liaison to the nation’s governors, and led the administration’s efforts to obtain congressional approval of the GATT Uruguay Round Agreement and the extension of China s MFN trading status. Additionally, he was appointed by President Obama to serve on his Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. Before working in the Clinton White House, Ambassador Emerson served as Los Angeles Chief Deputy City Attorney and was a partner in Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg, and Phillips law firm.

Dr. Daniel S. Hamilton is a Senior Fellow at the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. At SAIS, he leads a project exploring the new dynamics of the Atlantic Basin. He served previously as the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Professor (2012-2019); Richard von Weizsäcker Professor (2002-2011); Founding Director of the School’s Center for Transatlantic Relations (2001-2019), and Executive Director of the American Consortium for EU Studies (2002-2017), designated by the European Commission as the EU Center of Excellence Washington, D.C.

​He has held a variety of senior positions in the U.S. Department of State, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs, responsible for NATO, OSCE and transatlantic security issues, Nordic-Baltic and Balkan Affairs; U.S. Special Coordinator for Southeast European Stabilization; Associate Director of the Policy Planning Staff for two U.S. Secretaries of State; Director for Policy in the Bureau of European Affairs; and Senior Policy Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador and U.S. Embassy in Germany. He also led international policy work for the Johns Hopkins-led National Center for the Study of Preparedness and Catastrophic Event Response (PACER), named as one of five U.S. National Centers of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  In 2008, Hamilton served as the first Robert Bosch Foundation Senior Diplomatic Fellow in the German Foreign Office, where he worked in the Planning Staff for Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. In 2012 he was a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ‘Futures Advisory Group’.