Understand today. Shape tomorrow.
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/
Panel discusses findings of the Physicians for Human Rights report at Centre for Fundamental Rights event. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) presented research into the arrest, detention, and torture of health workers by the Syrian government at an event on 4 December hosted by the Hertie School Centre for Fundamental Rights. The report, “'My only crime was that I was a doctor': How the Syrian government targets health workers for arrest, detention, and torture", was part of a discussion on accountability for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law during the Syrian conflict, as currently being considered by international and national tribunals. The discussion included Başak Çalı, Professor of International Law at the Hertie School and Director of the School's Centre for Fundamental Rights, Michele Heisler, physician and Medical Director at Physicians for Human Rights, Mazen Kewara, physician and Country Director for Turkey at the Syrian American Medical Society, Rayan Koteiche, researcher at Physicians for Human Rights and Shaher Younes, a detention survivor and human rights activist. Describing the hurdles for holding Syria accountable as a state on and of individual perpetrators Professor Cali noted that, “Domestic courts are the place where we see tiny glimpses of accountability at the moment: In Germany, Sweden, Norway and France. Where international systems are blocked, this horizontal movement in incredibly important”. The event was part of the series “Fundamental Rights in Practice” hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights.
A discussion following the German Federal Constitutional Court’s decision on 5 November 2019 declaring the sanctions imposed on recipients of unemployment benefits in part unconstitutional. Hosted by the Hertie School Centre for Fundamental Rights. The “Hartz IV” German labour market reform of 2005 has long been controversial - in particular, placing conditions on welfare recipients to receive benefits. Recipients of the standard welfare benefits in Germany can see their benefits reduced by 30%, if they refuse to take up or continue an employment opportunity with the possibility of a further reduction of 60%. Benefits can also be suspend in full if they grossly fail their obligations to cooperate. The German Federal Constitutional Court ruled on 5 November that this sanctioning scheme is in part unconstitutional as it fails to comply with the protection of fundamental rights - most notably, the fundamental right to a minimum standard of living. How did the Court come to this decision? Is it convincing from a fundamental rights and a social policy perspective? What are the implications for the current social welfare model in Germany? What comparisons can be drawn? This event is part of the Debating Fundamental Rights events series. Başak Çalı is Professor of International Law at the Hertie School and Director of the School's Centre for Fundamental Rights. She is an expert in international law and institutions, international human rights law and policy. She has authored publications on theories of international law, the relationship between international law and domestic law, standards of review in international law, interpretation of human rights law, legitimacy of human rights courts, and implementation of human rights judgments. Anke Hassel is Professor of Public Policy at the Hertie School. From 2016 to 2019 she was the Scientific Director of the WSI at the Hans Böckler Foundation. Anke Hassel has extensive international experience and scientific expertise in the fields of the labour market, social partnership, codetermination and the comparative political economy of developed industrial nations. Florian Rödl is University-Professor for Private Law, Labour Law and Social at the Freie Universität Berlin since 2016. Before, he led a group of junior researchers at the Cluster of Excellence "Normative Orders" at Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main. Michal Kramer is Centre Manager, Centre for Fundamental Rights. Before joining The Hertie School she was a postdoctoral fellow at the interdisciplinary research group "Human Rights Under Pressure", a joint programme of Freie Universität Berlin and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She held a teaching position at the Law Department of Freie Universität Berlin and a research position at The Israel Democracy Institute.
Climate change is increasingly considered a security threat with potentially far-reaching implications for the geostrategic environment. Through large-scale migration, increased border tensions, and greater demands for rescue and evacuation efforts, climate change potentially impacts the individual security of people and the viability of vulnerable states to an extent that exceeds existing disaster-response capabilities. As a result, Germany has announced that one focus of its membership in the United Nations Security Council will be on climate related security risks. Links to climate change have slowly started to enter UN resolutions in recent years, but there is still controversy about the extent to which climate related security risks can and should be addressed by the UN Security Council. How can the international community best address resource conflicts driven by climate change? What consideration needs to be given to climate change in conflict prevention? And what are the long-term consequences of including climate change in the agenda of the UN Security Council with regards to sanctions and peacekeeping? A discussion on the security implications of climate change and the role of the UN Security Council in this context, with speakers Ottmar Georg Edenhofer, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Professor for the Economics of Climate Change at the Technical University Berlin and founding director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), Nina von Uexkull, Assistant Professor at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University and Associate Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo, and Karl-Heinz Kamp, Special Envoy of the Political Director in the German Ministry of Defence. Welcome and introduction by Detlef Dzembritzki, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the United Nations Association of Germany, event chaired by Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, Senior Professor for Security Policy and Diplomatic Practice at the Hertie School, Director of the school’s Centre for International Security and Chairman of the Munich Security Conference.
Keynote and discussion with Masood Ahmed, President of the Center for Global Development. Major constraints to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include limited financing, inadequate infrastructure, poor quality institutions, and social norms. In this talk, Masood Ahmed focuses on the financing challenges related to achieving the SDGs. He discusses the low levels of private investment that have thus far been mobilised, challenges related to domestic resource mobilisation, and debt sustainability issues. Against this backdrop, he examines the key issue of how development finance institutions and developing countries can make progress in achieving the SDGs. More about this event: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/closingthesdgfinancinggap/
Why do some ideas take hold in fields and become standard practice while others are passed over and forgotten? What happened to these ideas that were “lost” along the way and may have pointed to an alternative path, one that was not necessarily wrong or bad? Hertie School Professor of Organization, Strategy and Leadership Johanna Mair and co-authors look at how forms of systemic power arise in a particular field, using the field of impact investing as a lens, in new research forthcoming in the Academy of Management Journal and available online as of September 2019. More about this research: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/debate/allcontent/detail/content/why-do-some-ideas-catch-on-in-fields-and-others-dont/
How do you solve some of the world's most "wicked problems"? In her keynote on social innovation at the Hertie School's 2019/2020 Opening of the Academic Year, Johanna Mair, Professor for Organization, Strategy and Leadership, discusses insights from her research. Social innovation on its own is not enough to solve these big world problems, she says. Instead, we need "scaling" to really make an impact. Read about what her decade-long research in the field has uncovered. More about Johanna Mair: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/research/faculty-and-researchers/profile/person/mair/
Tech companies have recently been criticised for not doing enough to control the negative effects of the internet. Spreading false information and hate speech, fomenting conflict, discontent and polarisation, and threatening peace and stability are among some of the most discussed issues. On the other hand, many tech companies have invested in this field and argue that it shouldn’t be them, but governments, who decide how the internet should be regulated. But who should decide these rules and who should enforce them? Current ideas include the creation of oversight authorities, imposing fines, increasing access to data for independent observers and improving the transparency of algorithms. The parameters set now will guide the future regulation of social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube, and thus require the right balance between protecting freedom of speech and addressing concerns about accurate information, healthy public discourse, user privacy and political stability. Nick Clegg, Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications at Facebook, Benoit Loutrel, former Director General of France’s Electronic Communications and Postal Regulatory Authority (Arcep) and Daniela Stockmann of Hertie School of Governance came together for a debate moderated by Katrin Bennhold, The New York Times Berlin bureau chief on the current and future challenges of regulating the internet.
Turning to domestic and international courts through strategic litigation has been central to global human rights activism for decades. It is a strategy that has been used to create long lasting social change in laws and public policies with the goal of advancing human rights. For some, litigation in the name of human rights has been a great success, making the human rights movement stronger by increasing its judicial power. For others, human rights litigation remains a 'hollow hope'. It brings minimalistic, slow and fragile gains at best or, at worst, gives rise to social and political backlash. The recent decay of the rule of law in many parts of the world further puts the role of litigation and courts as engines of human rights change into question. Can strategic litigation help promote long lasting human rights change or is it merely a hindrance? Can it be done differently to increase effectiveness? What’s does the future hold for strategic litigation for human rights in an age of illiberal democracies and authoritarianism? On 13 June 2019 Wolfgang Kaleck, Founder and Secretary General of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and Başak Çalı, Professor of International Law at the Hertie School of Governance and Director of the Center for Global Public Law at Koç University, debated the issue at the Hertie School of Governance. The discussion was chaired by James A. Goldston, Executive Director of the Open Society Justice Initiative. More about the event here: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/debatingthefutureofstrategichumanrightslitigation/
How can we explain the geographical variation of populism in Europe? In the North, right-wing populism dominates, while for many years left-wing populism has been the common in the South. Outside Europe, for example in Latin America, governments frequently shift between left and right populist presidents. In a talk at the Hertie School, Philip Manow discussed populist protest in various political economies by looking at how vulnerable they are to the two most powerful features of globalisation: the movement of goods and capital across borders and migration. This event was part of the Examining populism series, which invites speakers of different disciplinary backgrounds for discussions on the causes, effects and implications of the populist rise. It is co-chaired by Hanna Schwander, Professor of Public Policy, and Christian Flachsland, Assistant Professor of Climate and Energy Governance at the Hertie School of Governance. More about Hertie School events on our website: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/events/
Panel discussion centres on work, care-giving and how to bring about real equality in today’s world. Long-held notions of both women’s and men’s roles in society need re-thinking to allow people to reach their full potential, both privately and professionally, said Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of the New America Foundation and the 2018 recipient of the Dr. Michael Endres Prize, in a panel discussion on 9 April at the Hertie School. Conventional notions of men’s and women’s roles in society, the gender pay gap, the problem of sexual harassment, and other persistent issues of gender bias were the subject of a discussion between Slaughter, Andrew Moravcsik, who is Professor of Politics and Director of the European Union Program at Princeton University and also Slaughter’s husband, and Ana-Cristina Grohnert, who is a former board member at German insurer Allianz and currently Chairman of the Executive Board of Charta der Vielfalt e.V., a non-profit supporting diversity. Master of International Affairs student Polina Garaev and Master of Public Policy student Manual Clemens moderated the discussion. The Endres Prize is a 50,000-euro research prize honouring distinguished academics whose work centres on topics within the spectrum of the Hertie School’s research and teaching, and who have helped bridge academic research and policymaking. It is named for the long-time Chairman and current honorary Chairman of the Hertie Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Michael Endres.
Four young European Parliament candidates discussed their vision for Europe at the Hertie School on 11 April. On the panel were Hannah Neumann, 35, from Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in Germany, Vojtěch Vais, 26, a member of TOP 09 Party from Czechia, Marco Candela, 34, with Podemos in Spain, and Caroline Flohr, 25, a candidate for the pan-European party Volt in Germany. The event was part of the The Governance Post event series, a student-led public initiative at the Hertie School together with European Horizons, the Hertie School chapter of a global, student-led policy incubator with a mission to give young people a voice in the future of Europe and in transatlantic relations. Student moderators were Katherine Tepper (MIA), Sophia Engel (MPP) and Johannes Liebig (MPP). More about the event: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/2019-04-11-young-ep-candidates-discuss-vision-for-europe/
The upcoming 2019 European parliament election is increasingly portrayed as a fundamental turning point in the process of European integration. Following electoral gains in previous European and national elections in recent years, anti-EU populist parties are expected to increase their support even further, challenging the European project at its core. How can we explain the support of these parties and what are the implications for the future of Europe? In this talk, Daphne Halikiopoulou addresses these questions by focusing on multiple dimensions of populism. She argues that since the EP elections are considered “second order elections,” they will be used to cast protest votes, thus exaggerating the performance of niche parties. However, she argues that the implications of these elections for the European project are still significant, because of the ability of anti-EU populist parties to permeate mainstream ground and delegitimize the idea of a united Europe. Niklas Anzinger from Dalia Research joins Daphne for a discussion and offers his insights from a European polling perspective. This event is part of the Hertie School of Governance "Examining Populism" series, which invites speakers of different disciplinary backgrounds for discussions on the causes, effects and implications of the populist rise. It is co-chaired by Hanna Schwander, Professor of Public Policy, and Christian Flachsland, Assistant Professor of Climate and Energy Governance at the Hertie School of Governance.
Catherine de Vries discusses how to move the European project forward ahead of the EP elections. Catherine de Vries is Professor of Political Behaviour in Europe at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a Hertie School Board member.
Kapuscinski Development Lecture with H.E. José Ramos-Horta, former President of the Republic of Timor-Leste and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. "We are living in very dangerous times. Right here in the heart of Europe forces of good and of intolerance are on a collision course. Across the English Channel there are forces bent on wrecking a magnificent social, political and security architecture built over many decades pushing Europe towards the abyss of chaos and irrelevance. In the course of over 40 years, starting as an innocent and romantic believer in the promises and possibilities of the United Nations, I have seen the best – when the UN lived up to the expectations of the people it deployed to protect – but also I witnessed or heard heart wrenching stories of shocking betrayals on other front lines. I have engaged with UN personnel in my own country and in remote outposts where dedicated field staff absorb the indifference of headquarters, whose envoys descend to evaluate the mission, yet things stayed the same. The UN can do better. We are all the UN and we can and must do better." Listen to a speech by H.E. José Ramos-Horta, former President of the Republic of Timor-Leste and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and discussion with Inge Kaul, Adjunct at the Hertie School and the first director of the Human Development Report office of UNDP.
The next European Commission faces a broad array of challenges in regulating the evolving digital world. What are the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, how can you regulate competition and what are the implications for diversity in the digital era? In a discussion between France’s State Secretary for Digital Affairs Mounir Mahjoubi, Stephanie Kaiser, Founder and Managing Director of the digital health platform Heartbeat Labs, and Slava Jankin Mikhaylov, Professor of Data Science and Public Policy, we looked ahead to the EC priorities after the European Parliament elections in May.
Siv Jensen, Norwegian Minister of Finance, and Mark Hallerberg discussed the economic case for rules-based global integration. Liberal values have guided international cooperation over decades, based on the view that an open economic architecture with common rules is a shared interest, both regionally and globally. A common set of rules has promoted the development of free and open markets across borders, delivering tremendous gains. Yet, signs of less support for liberal core values and the rise of new powers in the global economy might suggest the tide is turning. What is at stake? And how can we best pursue politics that promote open markets and support international rules? Siv Jensen, Norwegian Minister of Finance since 2013, and Mark Hallerberg, Dean of Research and Faculty and Professor of Public Management and Political Economy, discussed these questions.
The Hertie School of the Governance convened top foreign policy thinkers from the United States and Germany on 18 February, directly after the 55th Munich Security Conference. Discussants reflected on the key issues, conclusions and critical challenges to international security raised at the conference, before a packed audience hosted by the school’s Centre for International Security Policy (CISP). The post-MSC discussion at the Hertie School offered an insider’s view into the conference, bringing together Nicholas Burns, former US Ambassador to NATO and Professor of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Daniela Schwarzer, Director of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin and Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, Professor for Security Policy and Diplomatic Practice at the Hertie School of Governance and Chairman of the MSC.
At the end of 2018 the European Union launched a “war against disinformation” in an attempt to protect the upcoming European Parliament elections in May 2019. The proposed measures include a rapid alert system to support member states in identifying disinformation campaigns, an increased budget of €5m for the detection of disinformation, and pressure on tech companies to get on board with weeding out “fake news.” Are these measures too little, too late? How concerned do we actually need to be about disinformation in Europe? Russia has often been pointed to as a main source of disinformation but are there other countries or actors that we need to be worried about? And what about the voters in the 28 member states? What can be done to equip them to navigate the digital landscape and find accurate information to guide their voting? Can lessons learned from previous disinformation campaigns help us design better policy responses? Panelists Paul-Jasper Dittrich, Policy Fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute Berlin, Matthias Spielkamp, founder and executive director of AlgorithmWatch, and Rebekah Tromble, Assistant Professor in the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University, discussed these and other questions at the event chaired by Anita Gohdes, Professor of International and Cyber Security at the Hertie School of Governance.
Reward and punishment: Inside China’s social credit system by Hertie School
A lecture by Thomas Hegghammer on 3 December 2018 on the causes, evolution, and revival prospects of the latest jihadism wave. This event is chaired by Julian Wucherpfennig, Assistant Professor of International Affairs and Security at the Hertie School of Governance, and was a continuation of the lecture series 'Frontline research on terrorism' at the Centre for International Security Policy at the Hertie School. Thomas Hegghammer is Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo. Trained in Middle East Studies at Oxford University and Sciences-Po in Paris, he has held fellowships at Harvard, Princeton, New York, and Stanford Universities, and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He has worked on militant Islamism since before 9/11 and has published extensively on a variety of jihadism-related topics. His most recent books are Jihadi Culture: The Art and Social Practices of Militant Islamists (Cambridge, 2017) and The Caravan: Abdallah Azzam and the Rise of Global Jihad (Cambridge, forthcoming). (Photo credit: Christian Vinculado Tandberg/FFI)
Panelists Katrin Suder, Chairperson of the Advisory Council on Digitalisation to the German Federal Government, Constanze Stelzenmüller, inaugural Robert Bosch Senior Fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, and Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, Senior Professor for Security Policy and Diplomatic Practice at the Hertie School of Governance and Director of the school’s Centre for International Security Policy (CISP), discuss future priorities of German and European security policies. Digitalisation causes fundamental changes to the global state of security and means of war; cyber-attacks have become a major threat, increasingly addressing critical infrastructures of our societies. Simultaneously, artificial intelligence is shaping defence systems and strategies at an unprecedented pace. How can international actors respond and increase their resilience? More on the event and panelists: http://staging.hertie-school.org/en/defenceinthedigitalage/
Panelists discuss future of US political parties, implications for transatlantic relations and what’s in store for 2020. A "blue wave" has now met a "red wall" – this is how Nelson Cunningham, former advisor to President Bill Clinton and co-founder of political consultancy McLarty Associates, described the election results to an audience of 130 at a 2018 US election post-mortem at the Hertie School on 7 November. Cunningham, alongside Sudha David-Wilp, Senior Transatlantic Fellow and Deputy Director of the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund; Peter Beyer, member of the German Bundestag and Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at the Federal Foreign Office; Mark Hallerberg, Dean of Research and Faculty and Professor of Public Management and Political Economy at the Hertie School; and Andrea Römmele, Dean of Executive Education and Professor for Communication in Politics and Civil Society, discussed the outcome of the election in a panel moderated by Anna Sauerbrey, journalist at Der Tagesspiegel. Cunningham said he could see President Donald Trump reaching out to the Democrats, who now control the House of Representatives, for deals on infrastructure legislation, middle class tax cuts or international trade. But for transatlantic relations, Peter Beyer said he thinks dialogue with the US will become even more difficult, even though there is no alternative partner in the world for Europe – culturally, economically and in terms of security. Sudha David-Wilp says she’s optimistic about US politics over the next two years in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, especially as women, minorities and other Americans have shown their interest in political engagement. Listen to the full discussion on our podcast. More on the event and panelists:
“People-centred, inclusive, experimental, data-enabled and connected,” – these are the five elements of the “new practice of public problem-solving,” according to US political scientist Anne-Marie Slaughter. Slaughter outlined her vision for how government, civil society and the private sector must work together to solve problems like climate change, homelessness or work-life balance, in an acceptance speech for the 2018 Dr. Michael Endres Prize, awarded by the Hertie School of Governance on 8 October. More information: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/anne-marie_slaughter_receives_endres_prize/ Understand today. Shape tomorrow. https://www.hertie-school.org
In his spring 2018 International Security course, Professor Julian Wucherpfennig tasked first-year Master of International Affairs (MIA) students to produce podcasts focussing on a singular aspect of security – climate change, digital technology, migration, to name a few. This is an example of the students’ work. Understand today. Shape tomorrow. https://www.hertie-school.org This podcast is for educational purposes only.
In his spring 2018 International Security course, Professor Julian Wucherpfennig tasked first-year Master of International Affairs (MIA) students to produce podcasts focussing on a singular aspect of security – climate change, digital technology, migration, to name a few. This is an example of the students’ work. Understand today. Shape tomorrow. https://www.hertie-school.org This podcast is for educational purposes only.
In his spring 2018 International Security course, Professor Julian Wucherpfennig tasked first-year Master of International Affairs (MIA) students to produce podcasts focussing on a singular aspect of security – climate change, digital technology, migration, to name a few. This is an example of the students’ work. Understand today. Shape tomorrow. https://www.hertie-school.org This podcast is for educational purposes only. Intro music credit: „Intro 1N15“ by Setuniman is licensed under CC BY-NC 3.0.
Pieter van de Glind gave this keynote as part of the 4th symposium of the research project “i-share: The sharing economy’s impact in Germany” that is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The symposium took place at the Hertie School of Governance on 26 April 2018. *This keynote lecture has been edited slightly for the purpose of this podcast. Understand today. Shape tomorrow. https://www.hertie-school.org
Johanna Mair guides Executive MPA students on a quest to discover the secret to creating impact. Learn more about the seminar: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/socialinnovationseminar/ Understand today. Shape tomorrow. https://www.hertie-school.org
In a post-Munich Security Conference discussion held at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin on 19 February, Wolfgang Ischinger asked Louise Mushikiwabo, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Rwanda, about the possibility of permanent UN Security Council representation for Africa. Understand today. Shape tomorrow. https://www.hertie-school.org *This audio highlight has been edited for a podcast format.
Ira Katznelson delivered this lecture*, "Who is the people? Reflections on popular sovereignty," on 8 February at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. The event was co-organised with Bard College Berlin with the generous support of the American Social Science Research Council. More information can be found here: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/events/event-previews/event-previews/whoisthepeople/ Understand today. Shape tomorrow. https://www.hertie-school.org *This lecture has been edited slightly for a podcast format.