FEATURED COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS

Wieslander quoted in the New York Times on Angela Merkel’s tenure

New Atlanticist May 6, 2025

Is Merz’s double-take chancellor vote a sign of things to come in Germany?

By Jörn Fleck and Jurek Wille

It took two rounds of voting in the Bundestag to elect Friedrich Merz chancellor, a sign of division unprecedented in modern German history.
Defense Policy Elections
Wieslander quoted in the New York Times on Angela Merkel’s tenure

New Atlanticist Feb 19, 2025

Germany’s economy has gone from engine to anchor. Here’s what the next chancellor faces.

By Piotr Arak

Revitalizing growth in Germany’s economy, which appears increasingly mired in stagnation, will demand urgent action from the next chancellor.
Economy & Business Elections
Wieslander quoted in the New York Times on Angela Merkel’s tenure

New Atlanticist Feb 4, 2025

The next German chancellor must lead from the front, not the middle, on European security

By Rachel Rizzo, James Batchik

From support for Ukraine to defense spending, German leaders would be wise to take the phrase Führung aus der Mitte permanently out of their vocabulary.
Elections Germany

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Debriefing Germany’s federal elections
Elections European Union Germany Politics & Diplomacy

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Content

In the News

Feb 11, 2020

Wieslander quoted in the New York Times on Angela Merkel’s tenure

By Atlantic Council

Germany Politics & Diplomacy

In the News

Dec 20, 2019

Morningstar and Fried quoted in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Nord Stream 2 sanctions

By Atlantic Council

Eastern Europe Economic Sanctions

New Atlanticist

Dec 17, 2019

Russia gas pipeline sanctions legislation (PEES Act): A way ahead

By Daniel Fried

Enacting the sanctions mandated by the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act (PEES Act), for all its careful crafting, may not actually block Nord Stream II but may instead burden the US-German relationship. Rather than impose sanctions, the administration should waive them for now but prepare even stronger contingency sanctions to be implemented should the Kremlin once again use gas exports as political leverage against Ukraine, Central Europe, or the Baltics.

Economic Sanctions European Union

UkraineAlert

Dec 11, 2019

Russia-Ukraine Paris peace talks: The view from Berlin

By Mattia Nelles

Monday’s Normandy Four summit in the French capital saw German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron sitting down with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin in a bid to end years of deadly stalemate and bring to an end the undeclared war between Russia and Ukraine in the Donbas. What kind of impression did the long-awaited Paris summit make in Berlin?

Conflict Germany

SyriaSource

Dec 6, 2019

Reconstruction and security sector reform in Syria must go hand in hand

By Nora-Elise Beck and Lars Döbert

The structure and characteristics of the pre-conflict Syrian security sector contributed heavily to the outbreak of the Syrian civil war; for decades, it stood for corruption, discrimination, violent repression, and large-scale human rights abuses. When the Arab Spring began to unfold in Egypt and Tunisia in early 2011, a group of Syrian school boys got […]

Germany Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding

In the News

Dec 6, 2019

Social Democracy in search of its identity

By Atlantic Council

For the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, Atlantic Council Resident Fellow Julian Mueller-Kaler takes a look at Germany's SPD, Social Democracy's search for its identity, and the related global rise of populism.

Economy & Business Elections

UkraineAlert

Dec 3, 2019

Ukraine faces a decisive December in a rapidly deteriorating geopolitical climate

By Stephen Blank

With a NATO summit in London and long awaited peace talks in Paris, December is shaping up to be a decisive month for Ukraine, but the geopolitical climate is far from favorable and could deteriorate further.

Conflict France

Photo Essay

Nov 7, 2019

A walk through Berlin: Thirty years after the Fall

By John Dunton-Downer

John Dunton-Downer provides a glimpse of Berlin as it celebrates its recovered unity three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Germany

Long Take

Nov 7, 2019

Die Mauer im Kopf: The legacy of division in German politics

By Michael John Williams

Pressures from a new global economy and rising rates of migration have collided with the deeply rooted past of a divided Germany to make political predictability a thing of the past. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany is still grappling with a division— the Wall in the minds of the people, rather than an actual physical barrier of steel and concrete.

Elections Germany

New Atlanticist

Nov 6, 2019

What the US learned from the fall of the Wall

By Jasper Gilardi

After forty years of the Iron Curtain and a divided Germany, it was clear that the US president was in no hurry to dance atop the wall and claim victory if it came at the cost of the US vision for a Europe whole and free.

Germany United States and Canada
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Experts

Fellow

Samuel Denney

Nonresident Fellow

Transatlantic Security Initiative

English Europe & Eurasia

Fellow

Tyson Barker

Nonresident Senior Fellow

Europe Center

Cybersecurity Digital Policy

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James Batchik

Associate Director

Europe Center

Central Europe Digital Policy

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Noel Coenraad

Strategy Advisor, Vattenfall AB

Millennium Leadership Program

Energy Transitions Germany

Fellow

Hanna Dohmen

Nonresident Fellow

Global China Hub

China Chinese

Staff

Jörn Fleck

Senior Director

Europe Center Transform Europe Initiative

Digital Policy Economy & Business
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