If the American-German relationship can survive US President Donald Trump's term, it'll be stronger than ever, write three policy experts for Handelsblatt. The Paris Climate Accord. Steel and aluminum tariffs. The Iran Deal. It is hard to imagine a rougher patch in transatlantic and US-German relations. Earlier this month, when we participated in a conference with German and American opinion leaders who had gathered in Washington, DC to assess the relationship and determine concrete actions that will drive the alliance forward, the mood of our German friends reflected this rough patch. There was great pessimism about how much progress can be achieved in shoring up the relationship given the current environment. Read more
Former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Named as Chairman of the American Council on Germany Ambassador John B. Emerson, Vice Chairman at Capital Group International and former U.S. Ambassador to Germany, was elected Chairman of the American Council on Germany (ACG) on January 17, 2018. He is the ACG’s sixth Chairman since its founding in 1952, following in the footsteps of John J. McCloy, Senator Charles McC. Mathias, Jr., General John Galvin, Garrick Utley, and Ambassador Robert M. Kimmitt. Ambassador Emerson’s connection with the ACG extends back to 30 years ago: In 1988, he traveled to Germany on an ACG Political Exchange Fellowship, carried out in collaboration with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. He succeeds Ambassador Kimmitt, Senior International Counsel at WilmerHale LLP and also a former...
On Monday, November 20, ACG President Dr. Steven E. Sokol appeared on CNBC to discuss the breakdown of coalition negotiations in Germany. Watch here
Trump is not America. That is why Germany will remain the current European nation for the USA. A Response to Jörg Lau's and Bernd Ulrich's America Criticism Lesen Sie diesen Text auf Deutsch Although for more than 70 years common values were invoked to keep the transatlantic partnership together, now is the time to assert shared U.S.-German interests. For this reason, we, the signatories, take issue with the recent argument offered by Jorg Lau and Bernd Ulrich in DIE ZEIT("Something New in the West", ZEIT 43/17) which argues in effect for a German led decoupling of the West from the United States. We are not making a sentimental case for transatlanticism; rather we assert that we have shared interests. Read more
Some call today’s German election boring, but it could produce a Brexit/Trump-like surprise. Stakes are high as Germans take to the polls today for the 19th federal election since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. The campaign season has been short and rather uneventful, especially by American standards, and Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to have a lock on the top job. However, some surprises may yet be in store — including the makeup of the coalition government she will lead in her fourth term and the makeup of the German Bundestag (parliament). Read more
