Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the US-German relationship faces new challenges. While official cooperation and interaction between Berlin and Washington continue to be robust on a wide range of issues, the German and American publics have grown less familiar with each other. Diminishing personal ties between the two peoples threaten to do lasting damage to bilateral relations and the transatlantic relationship, and younger Germans in particular are raising questions.

In Through a New Prism: A Next Generation Strategy for the US-German Relationship, the Next Generation Project Fellows, six Americans and six Germans between the ages of 25 and 35, examine the US-German relationship from a “Next Generation” perspective. They argue that young Germans and Americans look at the world through a series of lenses, such as the desire for transparency, accountability, representation, diversity, and equality, which color their views on key issues for the US-German relationship.

Through a New Prism provides eighteen recommendations for strengthening the US-German relationship, some of which suggest new areas of collaboration, while others give classic solutions a new twist. The report is grounded in the belief that more important than the history the United States and Germany share is the future that both the people and their political leaders will help to create, sustain, and protect.