US-German Next Generation Project Launched

The US-German Next Generation Project, a project the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security launched in February 2015 to strengthen the transatlantic partnership through stronger US-German ties, hosted an opening reception on March 25. The event provided an opportunity to introduce the twelve young American and German Next Generation Fellows, who will be at the center of the project.

The Fellows, who are between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five, are all resident in the Washington, DC area. They are experts in key and emerging issues for the bilateral relationship, including economics and trade, defense and security cooperation, intelligence, migration, the media and German-US cultural and educational exchange. Working under Atlantic Council oversight, they will spend the next two months preparing a ten- to twelve-page “next generation” strategy for strengthening the US-German relationship. In preparing the report, the Fellows will be able to draw from a worldwide online discussion forum, the Next Generation Network, which the Atlantic Council initiated in early March. They will also have the benefit of a series of roundtables with senior experts on Germany and the United States. The report’s working title is: “Building a Common Future: A Next Generation Strategy for the US-German Relationship.” It will be released simultaneously in Washington and Berlin in June 2015.

The reception, which was organized in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, featured Annette Heuser, member of the Atlantic Council’s Board of Directors and Executive Director of Bertelsmann Foundation, as its keynote speaker. Bill Martin, State Department Senior Fellow and Project Coordinator also spoke. Approximately 40 guests attended the event. Deutsche Atlantische Gesellschaft, Bertelsmann Foundation, American Council on Germany and the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies are the other Next Generation Project partners.