Europe's Default Liberal Hegemon: Germany's Troubled Leadership in the EU

Join us for a lunch discussion on Germany's role in the EU and beyond with Thorsten Benner, Director of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, an independent non-profit think tank he co-founded in 2003 inspired by his experience in the US, and Amb. Kurt Volker, former United States Permanent Representative to NATO. “Too big for a balance of power in Europe and too small for hegemony.” That is how historian Ludwig Dehio described the German dilemma after unification in 1871. The European Union was supposed to do away with this by embedding Germany in a system of institutions. Still, many fear that 25 years after reunification Germany finds itself again in the trap of “not being powerful enough to impose its will on the continent, but at the same time powerful enough to be perceived as a threat by other powers.” What answers does the German role in the three defining crises of the past years (Eurozone debt, Ukraine/Russia and refugees) provide? Benner's areas of interest include peace and security, digital and technology policy as well as the interplay of the US, Europe and rising powers in the making of global (dis)order. Prior to co-founding GPPi, he worked with the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, the UN Development Program in New York and the Global Public Policy Project in Washington, DC. Ambassador Kurt Volker is a leading expert in U.S. foreign and national security policy with some 30 years of experience in a variety of government, academic, and private sector capacities. He currently serves as Executive Director of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, a part of Arizona State University based in Washington, DC. He served as U.S. Ambassador to NATO in 2008-2009. Moderated by Joseph Wippl, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer and Professor of the Practice of International Relations at the Pardee School. This event is sponsored by the Boston Eric M. Warburg Chapter of the American Council on Germany and the Center for the Study of Europe. Lunch provided. Free and open to the public. RSVP to edamrien@bu.edu.