Hertie School of Governance

In this episode, David Backovsky interviews Alex Romero, visiting professor at Sciences Po and founder of Alto Intelligence. They discuss all things hybrid threats – what they are, their history and how the rise of subthreshhold operations challenges the geopolitical status quo. Listen now to find out more!

In the 10th episode of Season 3 David Backovsky interviews Matthias Schulze of the IFSH on all things cyber conflict. They discuss the developing perspectives on what role cyber conflict can play in general and in relation to kinetic operations, and beyond. They also discuss the impacts of recent conflicts including the Russian Invasion of Ukraine on cyber. If you want to get a comprehensive overview of what cyber conflict is and how we see it now, then have a listen.

In this episode David Backovsky interviews Professor Nadiya Kostyuk of Carnegie Mellon University about the cyber elements of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They discuss what the expectations were before the war, what this special empirical case study teaches us about cyber conflict and much more. Tune in and find out more!

In today's episode David Backovsky sits down with Rumman Chowdhury, CEO of Humane Intelligence and the United States Science Envoy for Artificial Intelligence to discuss the recent developments in AI systems and how to ensure that AI is developed in a secure and responsible way. David and Rumman touch on many aspects of AI, including the anthropomorphisation that it falls victim to, AI red-teaming and much more.

Are you interested in better understanding spyware and the digital surveillance industry? Berlin Security Beat host David Backovsky interviews two experts from Amnesty International's Security Lab, Elina Castillo Jiménez & Rebecca White. Together they discuss what unlawful digital surveillance entails, the great cost that its use has on its victims and what can be done about it. The episode also includes advice on how to better protect oneself from possible intrusions.

In this episode David Backovsky interviews with Anita Gohdes, Professor of International and Cyber Security at the Centre for International Security and the Hertie School. Anita has recently published, "Repression in the Digital Age: Surveillance, Censorship, and the Dynamics of State Violence" with Oxford University Press. They sat down to discuss what digital state repression looks like, how it operates, and how it complements traditional forms of violent state repression. Tune in to find out more!

Would you like like to better understand the role of the United States in cyber diplomacy? This episode features William Klein, a former U.S. State Diplomat with over two decades of experience with a special focus on China. William and David discuss a range of issues including the evolution of U.S. cyber foreign policy, China, export controls, digital arms control and more. William Klein is now a consulting partner with FGS Global, a strategic advisory consultancy and is a Senior Associate with CSIS.

Do you want to learn more about how cyber policy institutions were built across the last two decades? In our newest episode David Backovsky of the Berlin Security Beat interviews Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar, Director of the Digital Society Institute at the ESMT in Berlin, on what it was like to build up cyber policy & diplomacy institutions across the Ministry of Defense of Estonia, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, NATO and the European External Action Service.

In the second episode of our two-parter on cyber threats we focus on cybercrime. David Backovsky talks to Rutger Leukfeldt, Professor of Governing Cybercrime at Leiden University and Senior Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement. We discuss everything from hackers to criminal nexuses to hacktivists, ransomware and social engineering. How cyber criminals can differ wildly, ranging from organized groups with corporate structures who provide cybercrime as a service to opportunistic cyber “street gangs”. Tune in to find out more.

In the first half of our two-parter on cyber threats we'll be discussing cyber threat intelligence (CTI) and state actors with one of Berlin's leading threat intelligence experts, Jiro Minier. We cover the basics of CTI and then explore the geopolitical side with China as a case study of how state threat actor nexuses operate. Jiro Minier is Lead, Threat Intelligence Research and Analysis at the DCSO in Berlin. He is a former fellow of the Centre for International Security and the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative (ECCRI).

In the opening episode of the 3rd season, we interview two Hertie School alumni, Kritika Roy and Finn Hagemann on their transition to the industry, what their work in cybersecurity entails and what advice they'd have for newcomers on entering the industry. Tune in to find out more!

In this episode we delve into the work of NATO with the Branch Head for Strategic Issues Engagements at NATO Allied Command Transformation. We cover a wide range of issues, from Vlasta's experiences as one of the few female recruits at Citadel, to her insights on the organizaitonal dynamics of NATO and the core skills and tools that young professionals need to succeed in NATO's operational environment.

In this episode we interview Dr. Gorana Grgić, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Government and International Relations and the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Gorana is a world expert on U.S. and transatlantic security policy and has collaborated with a range of institutions from the EU to NATO to the Australian Ministry of Defence. In this episode we discuss a wide-range of topics from translating academic work to policy to navigating media appearances.

In this episode of the Berlin Security Beat, we welcome Ankit Panda, a renowned nuclear analyst and Stanton Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment's Nuclear Policy Program. Ankit, known for his expertise on the Asia-Pacific, nuclear strategy, arms control, and emerging technologies, gives a glimpse into the life of a nuclear analyst. He shares his insights on the obstacles upcoming professionals encounter in the field, essential skills for success, and his approach to writing.

In this month's episode we interview Cato Stensland, former intelligence officer in the secret services in Norway. We cover a wide-range of issues from the nature of intelligence work, to open source intelligence, to the issues with security clearances.

In this episode we speak with Brad Roberts, director of the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about what it takes to be part of the nuclear strategic community, his work for the Obama administration and some advice for future nuclear analysts. For more information on the Center for Global Security Research, please visit: https://cgsr.llnl.gov/ For more information on the Centre for International Security visit: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/international-security

In the pilot episode of the second season, Constanze Stelzenmüller recounts the development of her career, from journalism to becoming a director at Brookings, and the challenges and transitions that came with her path. Theme Copyright: Music by amaksi from Pixabay

Dr. Christian Gläßel, postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for International Security at the Hertie School, and Dr. Adam Scharpf, incoming assistant professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen, both experts on authoritarian regimes, join Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre, to talk about “sportswashing”, i.e. the instrumentalization of sports, in light of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar. They discuss: • the scrutiny-publicity dilemma autocrats face when hosting international sports events, • how the Argentine military junta disappeared and killed opponents before the 1978 World Cup, • what the events of ‘78 tell us about today, and • the implications for politicians, functionaries and sponsors.

Anita Gohdes, Professor of International and Cyber Security at the Hertie School, and an expert on contentious politics in the cyber realm, joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, to talk about journalist killings. They discuss: - the conditions that put journalists in danger in institutional democracies, - the instrumentalization of social media, - the intersection between online and offline politics in the context of protests, and - how to better protect journalists and freedom of expression.

Alistair Wellmann, a Practice Fellow at the Centre for International Security at the Hertie School, and an expert on sanctions implementation and effectiveness, joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, to talk about sanctions. They discuss: • why states impose sanctions, • different sanction types, • when sanctions work and when they don't, and • how to sharpen the tool.

Julian Wucherpfennig, Professor of International Affairs and Security at the Hertie School, and an expert on ethnic civil war and terrorism, joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to talk about terrorism. They discuss: • what terrorists want, • what went wrong in the so-called war on terror, • the effects of domestic counter-terrorism measures, and • the policy implications of terrorism research.

Marina Henke, Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School and Director of the Centre for International Security, an expert on nuclear security, military interventions and European defense policy, joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, to talk about nuclear security. They discuss: • the Centre's newest research project “Understanding Nuclear Assurance, Deterrence and Escalation in Europe”, funded by the Stanton Foundation, • Marina Henke's research into the psychology of limited nuclear war, • nuclear weapons as signaling devices, • strategic in-stability, • arms control, and • the controversy over nuclear sharing in Germany.

Tarah Wheeler, a Cyber Project Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and an expert on information security and international conflict, joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, to talk about cyber security. They discuss: • the difference between cyber espionage and cyber war, • whether deterrence can work in cyberspace, • what the cyber future of warfare will look like, • and what that entails for military planning and procurement.

Andrea Ruggeri, Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Oxford, and an expert on peacekeeping and civil wars, joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, to talk about UN peacekeeping. They discuss: • why and how peacekeeping works, • when to deploy peacekeepers – and when not to, • how to use diversity in mission composition as an asset, • how geopolitics influences decision-making at the UN Security Council, • and, finally, where to get the best coffee.

Sara Mitchell, Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa, and an expert on international conflict, esp. territorial, river and maritime issues, joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, to talk about maritime disputes. They discuss: • the ins and outs of the disputes in the South China Sea, • how climate change increases the risk of maritime conflict, • why some of those conflicts turn violent while others are resolved peacefully, • whether the United States needs a larger fleet, • and, finally, what maritime conflicts to worry about.

Brian McQuinn, Assistant Professor of International Studies at the University of Regina, Canada, and an expert on armed groups and peace building, joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, to talk about Libya. They discuss: • the origins of the 2011 Libyan uprisings, • the “who's who” of the ensuing conflict, • his experience living among rebels in Misrata for ethnographic studies, and • the many “ifs” deciding the fate of the Libyan peace process.

Stacie Goddard, Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College and an expert on international order and global power politics, joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, to talk about grand strategy. They discuss: • grand-strategic successes and failures, • why talk isn't cheap, • how to keep a U.S.-China “Cold War 2.0” from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, • and (musical) 90s nostalgia.

Kai Oppermann, Professor for International Politics at the Chemnitz University of Technology and an expert on German Foreign Policy and the dynamics of coalition governments joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, in dissecting Europe's “top risk” in 2021 – the German Federal Election and its foreign policy implications. They discuss: • how to lose an election, • whether Germany is still a “civilian power”, • why Germany did not participate in the 2011 intervention in Libya, • and what to expect from a potential coalition between the conservative CDU and the Greens.

Nils Metternich, Associate Professor in International Relations at the University College London and an expert on civil conflicts and the prediction of their dynamics joins Dr. Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, in looking to the future. They discuss: - what we can and cannot predict in international security, - why a Nobel Peace Prize winner went to war in Ethiopia, - the role of forecasting in the policymaking process, and what conflicts to watch in 2021.

Sarah Kreps, Professor of Government at Cornell University, U.S. Air Force veteran and seasoned policy advisor joins Katharina Emschermann, Deputy Director at the Centre for International Security, to discuss key challenges for the next U.S. administration, the crisis of NATO and how (not) to overcome it, Trump's vs. Biden's approach to China, and why military restraint might not be the new foreign policy consensus in the U.S.

Listen to a discussion with Siim Sikkut, former government CIO of Estonia, about his new book 'Digital Government Excellence: Lessons from Effective Digital Leaders'. The event took place on September 23 at the Hertie School and was moderated by Luciana Cingolani with an introduction by Gerhard Hammerschmid.

Scholars have become more interested in secret statecraft in global politics, especially in its digital manifestations. Unfortunately, the self-hiding nature of the phenomena make them hard to study. Jon Lindsay, Associate Professor at the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy and Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, points out that this is true in spades of the seminal case of Stuxnet, which has had more influence on our understanding of cyber warfare than cyber warfare ever had on Iranian enrichment. A decade on, new information and subsequent events provide additional context, but this unusual case remains shrouded in unusual secrecy.

This year's iteration of our speaker series Challenges in International Security examines the concept of deterrence, often defined as “the action of discouraging an action or event through instilling doubt or fear of the consequences” (Oxford Dictionary). In the realm of international security, deterrence is one of the most widely used political strategies, yet it's application is very complex and often poorly understood. The speaker series will shed light on the various aspects of deterrence and how it operates in the different international security domains: conventional, nuclear, legal, economic and cyber. To kick us off, Professor Marina Henke and Professor Julian Wucherpfennig will provide an overview of the theoretical dimensions of deterrence. How is it supposed to work in theory? What difficulties are encountered in practice? How did the concept evolve and get fine-tuned during the Cold War? Where are we now?

In recent years, questions about the credibility of the US nuclear guarantee have re-emerged, leading to debates among some US allies about potential alternatives to US extended deterrence. A new task force report, chaired by Chuck Hagel, Malcolm Rifkind and Kevin Rudd with Ivo Daalder, analyzes the risk of potential nuclear proliferation among US allies and provides a set of policy recommendations to confront it. In this public event, Ivo Daalder, President of the Chicago Council, former US Permanent Representative to NATO and project director of the task force, and Wolfgang Ischinger who served as a member of the task force will discuss the findings of the report – with a particular emphasis on the ongoing debate in Germany and Europe about the future of US extended deterrence and NATO's nuclear sharing arrangement.

NATO's nuclear sharing arrangement – the deployment of some 200 U.S. nuclear weapons in five European NATO member states as part of NATO's nuclear deterrence strategy – has come under pressure. Some analysts see the current nuclear-sharing arrangement as technologically outdated and no longer capable of deterring possible aggression against NATO. For others, the immediate elimination of these weapons would be an important step toward nuclear disarmament, while still others warn that ending NATO's nuclear sharing arrangement would severely harm the alliance's defense strategy and cohesion. This panel explores these perspectives and discuss what the future of NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangement in Europe might look like. Guest speakers: Dr. Pia Fuhrhop heads the Berlin Office of IFSH since September 2019. Previously she has worked as foreign policy advisor to Omid Nouripour, Member of the German Bundestag. She has held research positions with Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin and worked as a consultant for the German Ministry for Development and International Cooperation. She works on transatlantic security and German foreign and security policies. She also holds a PhD from Free University Berlin, awarded for a dissertation on European influence on US crisis management policies. Prof. Dr. Alexander Mattelaer is the Vice Dean Research of the Institute for European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Egmont – the Royal Institute for International Relations and sits on the scientific committee of the Belgian Royal Higher Institute for Defence. As a Fulbright Schuman fellow he completed research stays at Harvard University and at the National Defense University. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Master degrees from the University of Bath and the University of Leuven. His research interests include the politics of European integration, transatlantic relations and NATO, defence policy-making, and the ongoing redefinition of state sovereignty. Dr. Jacek Durkalec is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). He is also affiliated to the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University. His research focuses on U.S. policy of extended deterrence in the context of current global challenges and increasingly integrated spheres of strategic deterrence and influence. In particular, he explores how U.S. alliances in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region need to adapt to multidomain and transregional character of 21st century competition and conflict.

The signs of growing far-right extremism are all around us, and communities across the globe are struggling to understand how so many people are being radicalized and why they are increasingly attracted to violent movements. In this talk, Cynthia Miller-Idriss argues that instead of focusing on the how and why of far-right radicalization, we might seek answers in the physical and virtual spaces where hate is cultivated. She shows how far-right groups are swelling their ranks and developing their cultural, intellectual, and financial capacities in a variety of mainstream settings. She discusses how young people on the margins of our communities are targeted in these settings, and how the path to radicalization is a nuanced process of moving in and out of far-right scenes throughout adolescence and adulthood. The talk reviews definitions, tactics, and underlying ideas of modern far-right extremism through an eye-opening focus on the mainstream places and spaces where today’s far right is engaging and ensnaring young people. This event is part the new speaker series "Challenges in International Security" hosted by the Centre for International Security. Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a professor at the American University in Washington, DC, where she directs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) in the Center for University Excellence (CUE).

With its contextualised analysis of the European Court of Human Rights' (ECtHR) engagement in Turkey's Kurdish conflict since the early 1990s, "Limits of Supranational Justice" makes a much-needed contribution to scholarships on supranational courts and legal mobilisation. Based on a socio-legal account of the efforts of Kurdish lawyers in mobilising the ECtHR on behalf of abducted, executed, tortured and displaced civilians under emergency rule, and a doctrinal legal analysis of the ECtHR's jurisprudence in these cases, this book powerfully demonstrates the Strasbourg court's failure to end gross violations in the Kurdish region. It brings together legal, political, sociological and historical narratives, and highlights the factors enabling the perpetuation of state violence and political repression against the Kurds. The effectiveness of supranational courts can best be assessed in hard cases such as Turkey, and this book demonstrates the need for a reappraisal of current academic and jurisprudential approaches to authoritarian regimes. Dilek Kurban is a Fellow and Lecturer at the Hertie School in Berlin.

Listen to a presentation by Daniel Nexon and Alexander Cooley based on their recent book Exit from Hegemony: The Unravelling of American Global Order. In Exit from Hegemony, Cooley and Nexon explore three processes that have eroded US leadership: exit from above via great-power challengers, exit from below via weaker states leveraging the availability of new patrons, and exit from within via counter-order movements and political parties. They argue that Trump has been both a symptom and accelerant of these processes and discuss what a new Biden administration can and can’t do to alter the trajectory of change in the international order.

Germany’s Constitutional Court has long been a powerful actor within the German political system. Recent decisions of the Court, however, indicate its increasing willingness to flex its muscles in European politics too. The German Court’s action have received a torrent of criticism: that it is undermining EU law, overstepping its judicial mandate and even lending implicit support to governments undermining rule of law standards. Others have defended the Court, arguing that its decision challenges important deficiencies in the way the Eurozone is organised. Teresa Violante, Ana Bobić and Franz Mayer present both sides of this debate which is hosted by Mark Dawson and Thu Nguyen.

he Centre for Fundamental Rights is honoured to welcome Tendayi Achiume for a talk on racial borders. This presentation will aim to discuss the intersection between racial injustice and migration governance from international law perspective. Tendayi Achiume is Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, and a research associate of the African Center for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. She is also the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and is the first woman to serve in this role since its creation in 1994. The current focus of her scholarship is the global governance of racism and xenophobia and the legal and ethical implications of colonialism for contemporary international migration. In 2016, she co-chaired the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law. She is also a recipient of the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award—the highest university-wide honour for excellence in teaching. Her publications include: Migration as Decolonization, Stanford Law Review; Governing Xenophobia, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law; Syria, Cost-Sharing and the Responsibility to Protect Refugees, Minnesota Law Review; and Beyond Prejudice: Structural Xenophobic Discrimination Against Refugees, Georgetown Journal of International Law. Achiume's presentation will discuss some of the findings of her recent report to the UN General Assembly on racial and xenophobic discrimination, emerging digital technologies in border and immigration enforcement. This report focuses on border and immigration enforcement and addresses the discriminatory impact of emerging digital technologies on migrants, stateless persons, refugees and other non-citizens. The discussion will be moderated by Cathryn Costello, Professor of Fundamental Rights and Co-Director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School. This event is a part of the Fundamental Rights in Practice event series hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights.

On 16 September, Alice Margaria opened the programme of the Fundamental Rights Research Colloquium for the new academic year with a presentation of her book, The Construction of Fatherhood: The Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Michaela Kreyenfeld will be a discussant of the book.

In November 2019, the head of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency described the EU ‘hotspot’ in Moria, Lesbos, Greece, as “the single most worrying fundamental rights issue that we are confronting anywhere in the European Union.” An overcrowded place of confinement for those seeking refuge in the EU, it was destroyed in a devastating fire days ago, leaving nearly 13,000 men, women, and children without shelter or access to basic services. In an apparently reaction to this tragedy, the European Commission brought forward the publication date of its new ‘Pact on Migration’ to Wed 23 September, with Commission President Von der Leyen promising ‘We'll take a human & humane approach. Saving lives at sea is not optional and those countries who fulfil their legal and moral duties or are more exposed than others, must be able to rely on the solidarity of our whole EU.’ This rapid reaction event brings together diverse voices on refugee protection to offer perspectives on the events in Lesbos, the ‘hotspot’ approach, and the Commission’s newly published Pact. The event is in association with the German Law Journal Special Issue on Border Justice: Migration and Accountability for Human Rights Violations (2020)

In an online presentation on 20 May, Mark Dawson, Professor of European Law and Governance at the Hertie School, discussed how the EU’s political process affects the level of rights protection afforded by EU law. During the presentation the two stages of the political process affects were discussed: first, the analysis of how institutional politics plays an important role in the evolution of the EU fundamental rights framework, and second, an empiric display of how legislative interaction affects the level of protection provided by three important EU legislative acts.

How far does the German constitution, compared to other legal orders, allow for fundamental rights to be restricted in times of crises? How far can the German State change its institutional set-up as well as its legislative procedure to adjust to crisis mode? Where are the constitutional limits to restrictions such as curfews, social distancing and forced closure of businesses and has the German State in its COVID-19 response observed them? A presentation by Pierre Thielbörger (Ruhr University Bochum/Hertie School). This webinar is part of the Fundamental Rights Research colloquium hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights

A webinar presentation by Başak Çalı, Professor of International Law and Director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School. Fundamental rights-based analysis offers an important legal and ethical yardstick to evaluate the responses of states to the COVID-19 pandemic: Have states around the world tackled the pandemic through rights-protecting and rights-respecting policies? Have they offered timely responses to protect the right to life of the populations at risk? Have they struck the right balance between competing rights at stake, such as the right to health and right to life versus the right to privacy, social and economic rights, freedom of movement and freedom of assembly? Do the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic carry the potential to undermine fundamental rights protections in its aftermath, in particular, through the introduction of new surveillance technologies? This webinar is part of the Fundamental Rights Research colloquium hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights.

In Episode 4 of our Hertie School Online Education Training Series, we talk about why it can be a good thing to be online and take the innovation with us back on campus This podcast series is created by Annika Zorn, Director Digital Learning and PhD Programmes at the Hertie School. Annika is the founder of the Florence Online School of Regulation, trainer of early-career researchers in teaching at the higher education level and trainer of professional trainers. She is editor and author of the book "Higher Eduction in the Digital Age" (links below) with Jeff Haywood and Jean-Michel Glachant (open-access chapters are also available). Host: Ashley Lauren Bamford-Kaemmereit

In Episode 3 of our Online Education Training Series, we talk about how to stay in touch with your students. +++ Formative feedback to get a better insight into what is happening in class +++ In your course, you assess the learning of your students - often at the end of the semester or, for example, as a mid-term exam. Students might have to give a presentation or submit other graded assignments. These types of graded assessments that give a summary of what a student has learned are called ‘summative feedback’. A second type of feedback is called ‘formative feedback’ and is usually not graded. Formative feedback serves students and teachers to understand better how the learning – and the teaching! – are going. These can be small quizzes, a Q&A during a class to see whether students are able to summarise a theoretical framework, or the submission of the final essay’s outline. Here are a few examples of formative feedback you can use in an online: 1) Small online quizzes during the class: Online quizzes give you immediate feedback on your teaching: Did my students catch what I just explained? As online quizzes are usually anonymous, students will not be afraid to give the wrong answer. That is a great tool to get feedback from everyone in the class how their learning is going. If half the class gives the wrong answer, maybe you want to spend a bit more time on that topic/concept? Also students will get immediate feedback whether they have understood the content of the class. You can set-up quizzes in many webinar software or you can use tools, such as Socrative (https://socrative.com/) or Kahoot (https://create.kahoot.it/login). 2) One-minute paper at the end of the class, or just before the start of a new class: At the start or end of the class, ask your students to sit down and write a summary answering the following two points. - What was the most important thing you learnt this morning/during the last class? - What was the muddiest (most unclear) concept or idea during this morning’s sessions/during last class? It is good if you share a big clock on the screen. People should be already logged in the Moodle course, so they can upload the assignment there, as soon as the bell rings. This exercise will give you a good and quick insight even in relatively big classes of what information ‘sticks’. You will also identify if there is a recurrent misunderstanding or misconception. In case the class is not too big, you could also ask your students to submit the answers via the tool Mentimeter (https://www.mentimeter.com/) so that you can share all the (anonymous) answers on the big screen. 3) Stop-and-go lecture with peer feedback: This type of feedback is useful for lecture formats. As a teacher you interrupt your lecture every 10 minutes to allow students to discuss in pairs for a few minutes. Student pairs get in touch via video/audio call or in a chat. You need to give a very precise task: ‘Summarise in your own words what was the most important point of this part of the lecture’. Or ‘ Please discuss whether there was anything unclear for one or the other and try to explain to each other’. Students could also use social media tools to get in touch. Set up the pairs before the class and ask students to already get in touch with each other. In case your lecture takes place on Microsoft Teams for example, that would allow students to contact each other within the same platform very easily. But they could also start a private chat within a webinar software. This podcast series is created by Annika Zorn, Director Digital Learning and PhD Programmes at the Hertie School. Annika is the founder of an online school (Florence online School of Regulation), trainer of early-career researchers in teaching at the higher education level and trainer of professional trainers. She is editor and author of the book "Higher Eduction in the Digital Age" with Jeff Haywood and Jean-Michel Glachant. Host: Ashley Lauren Bamford-Kaemmereit

In Episode 2 of our Hertie School Online Education Training Series, we talk about why it is a good idea to pre-record your lecture (anyway). +++ Tools and ideas in this podcast +++ Warm-up your voice before you start recording your lecture: Many professional speakers use tongue twisters to do so. Find some examples here that warm up your voice and mouth for different sounds: https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/tongue-twisters-english/ Recording a slide presentation: PowerPoint has a powerful built-in recording tool. This video from Microsoft explains how it works: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/record-a-slide-show-with-narration-and-slide-timings-0b9502c6-5f6c-40ae-b1e7-e47d8741161c. One thing to remember is that you should only go forward through the slides, as if you go backwards any narration for the previous slide is overwritten. You should also pause from talking when changing slides as one second of audio will be lost. Keynote is another option if you are a mac user and already have this software. This webpage from Apple will show you how.: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/keynote/tan8a5df9cc5/mac.= Screen recording: It could be that you need to include something that can’t be added to a slide, for example to show a coding application. In this case it could be possible to make a screen recording with voice over. It is important to remember that the whole of your screen will be recorded, so close any apps you are not using and personal email, consider that your desktop background may be seen and possibly disconnect from the internet to avoid any notifications popping up. Screen recording comes included in a Mac, you will find instructions here.: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208721 For Windows users it is a little more complicated as you will need to install software. We suggest OBS Studio: https://obsproject.com/. This is fairly easy to use, here you will find a quick start guide and FAQs: https://obsproject.com/wiki/OBS-Studio-Quickstart This podcast series is created by Annika Zorn, Director Digital Learning and PhD Programmes at the Hertie School. Annika is the founder of an online school (Florence online School of Regulation), trainer of early-career researchers in teaching at the higher education level and trainer of professional trainers. She is editor and author of the book "Higher Eduction in the Digital Age" with Jeff Haywood and Jean-Michel Glachant. Host: Ashley Lauren Bamford-Kaemmereit

In Episode 1 of our Hertie School Online Education Training Series, we talk about why your first class online might be especially challenging. +++ Tools and ideas in this podcast +++ Create a word cloud in your first class to see where people are connecting from and share it on the main screen. Two tools you can use to do that: - PollEveryWhere: https://www.polleverywhere.com/word-cloud - Answergarden: https://answergarden.ch/ This podcast series is created by Annika Zorn, Director Digital Learning and PhD Programmes at the Hertie School. Annika is the founder of the Florence Online School of Regulation, trainer of early-career researchers in teaching at the higher education level and trainer of professional trainers. She is editor and author of the book "Higher Eduction in the Digital Age" (links below) with Jeff Haywood and Jean-Michel Glachant (open-access chapters are also available). Higher Eduction in the Digital Age (2018): - Book: https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788970150/9781788970150.xml - Open-access chapters: https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/59799 Host: Ashley Lauren Bamford-Kaemmereit

Estonian govt CIO Siim Sikkut and Gerhard Hammerschmid discuss Estonia’s digital transformation. Siim Sikkut, the Republic of Estonia's Chief Information Officer and Gerhard Hammerschmid, Professor of Public and Financial Management and Director of the Hertie School Centre for Digital Governance discussed on 11 March what lessons Germany and other countries might draw from Estonia's digital transformation of its public administration. Their discussion is available as a podcast. After a series of extensive reforms over the last decade, Estonia has become one of the most advanced digital societies in the world. Recently, Estonia also presented its vision of how public services should work digitally in the age of artificial intelligence. Sikkut and Hammerschmid discussed the implementation of measures such as e-taxes and i-voting and the possibility that Estonia could act as a model or be a partner for other countries that want to become more efficient in providing public services to citizens. The event was hosted by the Centre for Digital Governance and the TROPICO research project. It is part of the "Future of Government" event series. The series addresses transformative trends challenging governments around the globe and explores possible responses to bolster state capacity and legitimacy in ever more turbulent political environments. Siim Sikkut is the Government CIO of Estonia, also titled as Deputy Secretary General for IT and Telecom at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications since March 2017. His role is to set the strategy and policies, to launch and steer strategic initiatives and regulation in areas of digital government and cybersecurity in Estonia. Siim is one of the founders of Estonia’s groundbreaking e-Residency programme. He was nominated as one of world’s TOP20 most influential people in digital government by Apolitical in 2018 and 2019. Siim is also the chair of OECD Working Party of Senior Digital Government Officials. Gerhard Hammerschmid is Professor of Public and Financial Management and Director of the Centre for Digital Governance at the Hertie School. His research focuses on public management reform, comparative public administration, public sector performance management and personnel management. He is a partner of the EU-funded research project TROPICO on public sector innovation and digital government transformation.

Global trends suggest that norms and institutions of fundamental rights are losing ground. Many governments and political movements explicitly deny fundamental rights' primacy, and some even violate them with impunity. Some political actors and scholars question the centrality and utility of fundamental rights, claiming that they undermine other values such as security, cultural identity, economic development and social justice. Yet there remain strong voices who insist that fundamental rights have a vital role in addressing new and enduring challenges – migration, the climate crisis and new technologies, to name a few. Such rights are embedded in the very ethos of courts, human rights institutions and many transnational social movements, and indeed in grassroots activism from below. The Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School was established to address just this: resilience, relevance and future challenges concerning the protection of human and fundamental rights in domestic, regional and global governance. Listen to a podcast of the launch event of the new Hertie School Centre for Fundamental Rights with a debate on the fundamental questions on fundamental rights. Are they losing or gaining ground, or holding their own in this era of heightened contestation? Do they still provide a lingua franca for legitimate legal and political decision making? Are current rights and accountability structures fit for the 21st century and the challenges it has brought? More on the participants: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/events/event-previews/2020/20-02-2020-are-fundamental-rights-losing-or-gaining-ground/