Beyond the Fiscal Cliff: Post-Election America from a German Perspective
Friday 14 December, 2012
6:30pm, $0
New York University, Deutsches Haus
42 Washington Mews
Please join us for a conversation with Ullrich Fichtner (Der Spiegel), Christiane Lemke (NYU-Max Weber Chair), and Martin Rauchbauer on a discussion about the German perspective on post-election America.
According to opinion polls, an overwhelming majority of Germans would have voted for President Obama on Election Day. Consequently, expectations about a constructive role for the US in global politics are high. From the perspective of most Europeans, one of the major challenges facing the United States and the world at large is economic growth. Will the Obama administration be able to negotiate a settlement with the republicans to avoid the fiscal cliff before the year ends? Or will an „austerity bomb“ (Paul Krugman) hit the US economy with devastating effects for the global economy? How dangerous is the fiscal cliff to begin with? Clearly, the problems associated with the fiscal cliff extend beyond fiscal and economic policy. Is political compromise still possible given the highly polarized post-election political culture? How will the new administration tackle other global problems that are close to the heart of Germans, such as environmental policy, conflict resolution in the Middle East, and the transitions in the post-Arab Spring world?
While a new administration is preparing to take office in the US, Germany is facing preparations for the upcoming federal elections in September 2013. How would the outcome of our federal elections affect US-German relations? Would a post- Merkel government reshape transatlantic relations? What about global security policy, conflict resolution and human rights policy? Will the US continue to shape approaches in conflict situations, or is the new US-administration expecting more European engagement with a new assertive role for Germany?
Ullrich Fichtner started his career during High School, contributing articles to local newspapers. During his university studies in Bremen and Berlin he worked as a freelance journalist for The Associated Press, covering the fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989 and the breakdown of the communist-led Eastern German State. As a Berlin correspondent of the national daily Frankfurter Rundschau he followed Germany’s way through the reunification process and portrayed Berlin as an emerging capital city of Europe. In 2000, he joined the national weekly Die Zeit as a junior editor. In 2001 he was hired as a reporter-at-large by Der Spiegel, one of Europe’s largest and most influential news magazines. He contributed largely to Spiegel’s in-depth investigation about the 9/11 terror attacks, focussing on Mohammad Atta’s leading role in the plot. As a world affairs reporter he intensely covered the Iraq war, portraying the commanding US general David H. Petraeus on several occasions. His war features were widely discussed not only in Europe, but also in the US. Other main stories dealt with the Middle Eastern peace process and the impact of China’s rise. Based in Paris, France, from 2002 through 2010, he is SPIEGEL's New York correspondent since 2011. He is an author and co-author of several books. His essay “Tellergerichtâ€, a critical survey of Germany’s food culture, helped foster a nation-wide debate over culinary habits.
Christiane Lemke is the 2010-13 holder of the Max Weber Chair in German and European Studies at NYU. She is a professor of political science at Leibniz University Hanover, Germany, and director of the Jean Monnet European Center of Excellence. She received her Ph.D. from the Free University in Berlin and went on to earn her habilitation in Political Science from the same institution. She has been Visiting Krupp Chair at Harvard University, DAAD Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Suffolk University. In addition, while on leave from Leibniz University Hannover from 2006 to 2007, she served as Director of State Parliament in Lower Saxony, Germany.
According to opinion polls, an overwhelming majority of Germans would have voted for President Obama on Election Day. Consequently, expectations about a constructive role for the US in global politics are high. From the perspective of most Europeans, one of the major challenges facing the United States and the world at large is economic growth. Will the Obama administration be able to negotiate a settlement with the republicans to avoid the fiscal cliff before the year ends? Or will an „austerity bomb“ (Paul Krugman) hit the US economy with devastating effects for the global economy? How dangerous is the fiscal cliff to begin with? Clearly, the problems associated with the fiscal cliff extend beyond fiscal and economic policy. Is political compromise still possible given the highly polarized post-election political culture? How will the new administration tackle other global problems that are close to the heart of Germans, such as environmental policy, conflict resolution in the Middle East, and the transitions in the post-Arab Spring world?
While a new administration is preparing to take office in the US, Germany is facing preparations for the upcoming federal elections in September 2013. How would the outcome of our federal elections affect US-German relations? Would a post- Merkel government reshape transatlantic relations? What about global security policy, conflict resolution and human rights policy? Will the US continue to shape approaches in conflict situations, or is the new US-administration expecting more European engagement with a new assertive role for Germany?
Ullrich Fichtner started his career during High School, contributing articles to local newspapers. During his university studies in Bremen and Berlin he worked as a freelance journalist for The Associated Press, covering the fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989 and the breakdown of the communist-led Eastern German State. As a Berlin correspondent of the national daily Frankfurter Rundschau he followed Germany’s way through the reunification process and portrayed Berlin as an emerging capital city of Europe. In 2000, he joined the national weekly Die Zeit as a junior editor. In 2001 he was hired as a reporter-at-large by Der Spiegel, one of Europe’s largest and most influential news magazines. He contributed largely to Spiegel’s in-depth investigation about the 9/11 terror attacks, focussing on Mohammad Atta’s leading role in the plot. As a world affairs reporter he intensely covered the Iraq war, portraying the commanding US general David H. Petraeus on several occasions. His war features were widely discussed not only in Europe, but also in the US. Other main stories dealt with the Middle Eastern peace process and the impact of China’s rise. Based in Paris, France, from 2002 through 2010, he is SPIEGEL's New York correspondent since 2011. He is an author and co-author of several books. His essay “Tellergerichtâ€, a critical survey of Germany’s food culture, helped foster a nation-wide debate over culinary habits.
Christiane Lemke is the 2010-13 holder of the Max Weber Chair in German and European Studies at NYU. She is a professor of political science at Leibniz University Hanover, Germany, and director of the Jean Monnet European Center of Excellence. She received her Ph.D. from the Free University in Berlin and went on to earn her habilitation in Political Science from the same institution. She has been Visiting Krupp Chair at Harvard University, DAAD Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Suffolk University. In addition, while on leave from Leibniz University Hannover from 2006 to 2007, she served as Director of State Parliament in Lower Saxony, Germany.