Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation in Services: Can it Help the Developing World?
May 2008
The European Union and the United States have dynamic services markets highly integrated through deep trade and investment ties. Differences in regulatory approaches and philosophies occasionally cause transatlantic disagreement regarding how each should respond to specific challenges or market needs. This is particularly true in services, which tend to be more highly regulated than manufacturing industries.

Rediscovering the Mediterranean: A Transatlantic Perspective on Security and Strategy
Ian Lesser
May 2008
The American presence in the Mediterranean is longstanding, but despite 200 years of engagement in the region, the American perspective on the Mediterranean remains distinctive and diffused.

As Farm Bill Nears Vote, Bush Presses for Fewer Subsidies
Dan Morgan
May 4, 2008
President Bush's decision in 2002 to sign a farm bill loaded with billions of dollars of new agricultural subsidies triggered considerable criticism from GOP conservatives true to the party's anti-spending philosophy.

Emptying the Breadbasket
Dan Morgan
April 29, 2008
At Stephen Fleishman's busy Bethesda shop, the era of the 95-cent bagel is coming to an end. Breaking the dollar barrier "scares me," said the Bronx-born owner of Bethesda Bagels. Fleishman and his customers are hardly alone. Across America, turmoil in the world wheat markets has sent prices of bread, pasta, noodles, pizza, pastry and bagels skittering upward, bringing protests from consumers.

China's African Aid
April 24, 2008
The rise of China as a very visible actor in Africa is one of the most striking features of the first decade of the new millennium. Trade between the two regions is projected to reach $100 billion before 2010, ten times the 2000 figure. At the same time, the rise of China has been greeted with fear and apprehension by many in the United States, Europe, and Africa who see this strong interest more as a threat than an opportunity.

Getting America’s Message Out to a Skeptical World
Michael Polt
April 2008
As the world continues to be intrigued by the U.S. electoral process, getting the American message out to its foreign audiences in a credible manner will be one of the most important agenda items and the toughest challenges for the new U.S. administration in January 2009. With a pioneering foreign and domestic policy and a strong diplomatic service, the United States is uniquely positioned to take on this public diplomacy challenge.

Jim Kolbe testifies before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Jim Kolbe
April 23, 2008
Senior Transatlantic Fellow Jim Kolbe, a former Member of the U.S. House of Representatives, testified April 23 before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs about foreign assistance reform in the next administration.

The End of the End of History
Robert Kagan
April 22, 2008
GMF Transatlantic Fellow Robert Kagan gives five reasons as to why the twenty-first century will look like the nineteenth.

Brown, black, white: Americans vote and discover a new continent
Michael Werz
4/11/2008
Usually nominations and elections decide about the future of a society. However, much to the surprise of many American, in the United States an intensive conversation about the status quo has begun. This has to do with the monumental changes in race relations that have become highlighted in the Democratic nomination process; transformations that before might not been so visible. The yearlong battle has opened out into a cultural self-reflection of national proportions and resulted in an unbelievable political mobilization. (In German)

Rethinking NATO Partnerships for the 21st Century
Ronald D. Asmus
April 2008
Security threats today are globalised and non-traditional. It’s time for NATO’s partnerships to follow suit.

Balkan Trust for Democracy Bulletin - Spring 2008
March 25, 2008
The Balkan Trust for Democracy periodically releases a seasonal Bulletin in which it shares grantee success stories, the latest BTD news, and letters from Executive Director Ivan Vejvoda.

Time to Rethink the WTO System:The United States, the European Union, and World Trade
Joe Guinan
March 2008
This paper argues that there is a need for reflection on the purpose of the WTO system. Putting the rapid integration of the world economy in perspective, this paper dwells on American and European leadership, or lack thereof, and on the major threats to the WTO system over agricultural protectionism and the proliferation of trade agreements. The authors conclude with alternative broad approaches to the further liberalization of trade.

The Crisis of the Post-Cold War European Order: What to Do About Russia’s Newfound Taste for Confrontation With the West
March 2008
The author of this paper argues that Russia’s newfound taste for confrontation with the West is not an emotional overreaction or theatrical grandstanding – it is a strategic choice. The Kremlin’s new foreign policy is not circumstantial in nature. It is the expression of a new foreign policy consensus within the Russian elite and the Russian society at large. The author analyzes what the West can do to allow the coexistence of a post-modern European Union and a post-imperial Russia.

Guardians of the Global System: What the Transatlantic Economic Partnership Should Give the World — and Why it Might Not Deliver
Richard Salt
March 2008
This paper is an effort to illustrate a number of factors shaping the global political economy, in the hope of generating a long-term foundation for transatlantic cooperation. The first part describes the scale of the challenge by reminding us why globalization generates particular challenges that require international solutions, and why it is so difficult to secure the necessary international cooperation. The second part argues that transatlantic cooperation is likely to be essential, and that the European Union and the United States have a particular responsibility conferred on them by their size and power; noting, however, that significant political obstacles seem, at present, likely to block progress.

Transatlantic Power Failures: America and Europe, Seven Years After 9/11: Hard Power Humbled, Soft Power eExposed, and a Looser, More Pragmatic Relationship
Constanze Stelzenmüller
March 2008
This briefing paper examines the massive failures of that occurred after 9/11 on both sides of the Atlantic. It analyzes the notion of power, and the ideas and policies that stemmed from the attack by asking the following questions: What failed, and why? What remains valid, and worth preserving? And what is the way forward for the transatlantic relationship?

Kosovo: The Balkans' Moment of Truth
Ivan Vejvoda
March 4, 2008
Ivan Vejvoda, executive director of the Balkan Trust for Democracy, testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding Kosovo and the Balkans.

The Copenhagen Consensus: Reading Adam Smith in Denmark
March 1, 2008
Denmark has forged a social and economic model that couples the best of the free market with the best of the welfare state, transcending tradeoffs between dynamism and security, efficiency and equality. Other countries may not be able to simply copy the Danish model of social democracy, but it nonetheless offers important lessons for governments confronting the dilemmas of globalization.

A new catastrophe for the boat people
Elizabeth Becker
February 21, 2008
Le Dung was 7 when his family bought passage on a rickety boat and fled the communist government of Vietnam for parts unknown. That was 30 years ago, when the plight of the Vietnamese boat people filled newspapers as one of the most dramatic stories coming out of the Cold War in Asia, and the United Nations convened a special conference to find them homes. Today these former boat people endure further misfortune after their homes were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

The Democrats in '08: Clinton and Obama struggle between experience and change
Michael Werz
February 2008
Since World War II, the quarrels within the democratic party during the primaries have attracted attention because the party was known for destroying itself while trying to find a suitable candidate for the most important position in the world. Why, in the seemingly endless campaigns from 2007 and 2008, does everything appear to be different this time around? GMF Transatlantic Fellow Michael Werz explains the reasons in this article for Kommune (full text in German).

2007 Annual Report
February 2008
Highlights GMF convening events, networking programs, research, and grantmaking initiatives in 2007. Also, includes a letter from GMF President Craig Kennedy along with financial and partner information. Downloadable as a large PDF file.

The Impacts of Biofuels on Greenhouse Gases: How Land Use Change Alters the Equation
Tim Searchinger
February 7, 2008
Most prior studies have found that substituting biofuels for gasoline will reduce greenhouse gases because biofuels sequester carbon through the growth of feedstock. These analyses have failed to count the carbon emissions that occur as farmers worldwide respond to higher prices and convert forest and grassland to new cropland to replace the grain (or cropland) diverted to biofuels.

China's New Dictatorship Diplomacy
Andrew Small
January 28, 2008
China is often accused of supporting a string of despots, nuclear proliferators, and genocidal regimes, shielding them from international pressure and thus reversing progress on human rights and humanitarian principles. A new Chinese foreign policy practice is emerging. This article was co-written with Stefanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt.

German voters peek through the looking glass
Constanze Stelzenmüller
January 25, 2008
The incumbent campaigning for re-election in this weekend's German election is one of his party's heavyweights, an ambitious and confident bruiser with a talent for scorching populist rhetoric. His challenger is a woman, a diffident speaker in a party with few women in top leadership positions; her peers would mostly have preferred another man as their candidate. It seemed an easy win for the incumbent. Now, polls show the race is too close to call.

The Baltic Model
Ronald D. Asmus
January 16, 2008
The West again faces major questions about how to reach out to young democracies striving to join our institutions -- in the Balkans, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. The challenge is to tie these countries to the West and its values at a time when enlargement fatigue is setting in and Moscow's opposition is growing.

Iran Policy After the “NIE” — Modest Findings, Revolutionary Effects
Ian Lesser
January 8, 2008
Findings from the recently released National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s program are not revolutionary — but the ensuing debate could be transforming for U.S. and transatlantic strategy toward Iran. The new estimate suggests that Tehran may well opt for a prolonged “near-nuclear” posture to secure greater regional weight and influence without triggering a sharp diplomatic or military response. The option of a military strike against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure now looks more remote. But longer term transatlantic strategy will need to emphasize containment and extended deterrence — alongside possible strategic dialogue with Iran.

Europe's Philosophy of Failure
Stefan Theil
January 4, 2008
What a country teaches its young people reflects its bedrock national beliefs. Schools hand down a society's historical narrative to the next generation. There has been a great deal of debate over the ways in which this historical ideology is passed on - Japanese textbooks that downplay the Nanjing Massacre, Palestinian textbooks that feature maps without Israel, and new Russian guidelines that require teachers to portray Stalinism more favorably. Yet there has been almost no analysis of how countries teach economics, a subject equally crucial in shaping foreign and domestic policies.

ACPs and EPAs: where’s the beef?
Joe Guinan
January 3, 2008
Now that the Doha round appears to be stirring back to life, some of the world's poorest countries should be looking to multilateralism to protect their interests with a renewed sense of urgency. The perils of bilateralism and unequal negotiations have been brought into sharp focus by the year-end expiration of the WTO waiver for the Cotonou regime of trade preferences, by which the European Union offered special access to its markets for the African, Carribean, and Pacific (ACP) group of former European colonies.

Is our aid making us safer?
Jim Kolbe
January 2, 2008
While images of Africa are effective in raising awareness of the issue, little attention has been paid to the problems in our current efforts to alleviate poverty. It is increasingly apparent that our aid - and trade - policies are not really supporting economic growth in impoverished countries. Nor are they enhancing our own security.

Modernity, Resentment, and Anti-Americanism
Michael Werz
January 2008
Althought Anti-Americanism is often treated as though it were a uniform reaction toward some undefined but somehow concrete experience, it should be analysed instead against the background of dynamic societies undergoing profound social, economic, and political and cultural transformations. This essay highlights some of the attempts to generally understand this phenomenon and then moves onto Germany specifically.