About - American Academy in Berlin

The Richard C. Holbrooke Forum

The Richard C. Holbrooke Forum is an ongoing series of international workshops, periodically convened by the Academy with varying experts who are convened by the American Academy’s Richard C. Holbrooke Fellows. The group addresses pressing global issues, among them statecraft and values, the enduring crisis of governance, the dynamics of transformation, as well as securing the peace.

The Richard C. Holbrooke Fellowship & Workshop

Since spring 2018, the American Academy in Berlin has awarded the Richard C. Holbrooke Fellowship to one residential fellow per academic year. The Richard C. Holbrooke Fellowship was created as a programmatic addition to the Richard C. Holbrooke Forum, which honors the American Academy’s founder. Its objective is to provide opportunities for dialogue on questions of special importance to both the United States and Germany. The program includes a workshop with practitioners from the United States and Europe, which is convened by the Richard C. Holbrooke Fellow. The workshop findings are published by the Richard C. Holbrooke Fellow through the American Academy in Berlin.

News from the Richard C. Holbrooke Forum

US-German Relations One Year Later: Transatlantic Security and President Trump

On February 15, 2018, a Richard C. Holbrooke Discussion about current state of German-American relations one year after the Trump presidency began took place among Derek Chollet (Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor for Security and Defense Policy, German Marshall Fund of the United States), Jörg Lau (Foreign Editor, DIE ZEIT), and Daniela Schwarzer (Director, German Council on Foreign Relations), and Angela Stent, Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian & East European Studies, Georgetown University. Introductory remarks and moderation were given by Thomas Bagger, Director-General for Foreign Affairs, Office of the President of the Federal Republic of German.

The Digital Diplomacy Project in Tallinn, Estonia

From November 5-7, 2017, the Richard C. Holbrooke Forum held a seminar in Tallinn, Estonia, as part of its ongoing Digital Diplomacy Project. In cooperation with the Tallinn-based International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS), participants conducted a deep- dive into the question of how the unfolding IT revolution will impact international affairs, diplomacy, statecraft, and global order. At the center of the discussion were issues of institutional adaptation in a networked world, the revolutionary impact of blockchain technology and quantum computing, the increasingly fuzzy distinction between war and peace, and how political order will come about and be maintained in a world where classic politics loses much of its ability to bring about outcomes. The seminar will be followed up by a series of essays on the subject, published under the Richard C. Holbrooke Forum publications page, and downloadable as PDFs.

Download and read the rapporteur’s summary by Judy Dempsey and chairman John C. Kornblum’s observations of the seminar.

Towards a New Balkans Diplomacy

Subsequent the Richard C. Holbrooke Forum’s early October 2017 roundtable on new diplomatic and political challenges in the Balkans, Cornelius Adebahr published an article for the Holbrooke Forum outlining those challenges and the way forward for the European Union.

New Publications from the Holbrooke Forum

Subsequent the Holbrooke Forum workshop The Global Triangle, held at the American Academy on May 5, 2017, the Forum initiated a publication series, based on a few of the major themes and topics addressed. The first three essays are “Drivers of Global Change,” by Eberhard Sandschneider, “The Digital Demos,” by Ulrich Speck, and “Net Reach,” by Adam Segal.

A Conversation between Stephen Hadley and Christoph Heusgen

On the evening of June 1, 2017, the Academy’s Richard C. Holbrooke Forum brought together Stephen Hadley, former national security advisor to President George W. Bush, and Christoph Heusgen, chief foreign policy advisor to the German chancellor, to discuss both the foundations and the policy specifics the Atlantic security arena is facing today. Click here to watch the full discussion.

The Global Triangle Project

On May 5, 2017, the Richard C. Holbrooke Forum hosted a workshop entitled The Global Triangle Project: Power, Innovation, and Order in a Networked World. The workshop looked into what happens when traditional geopolitics collides with the digital revolution, and what this means for diplomacy and statecraft. It was comprised of two dozen participants from academia, the private sector, and the foreign policy community—among them the China Daily, Mercator Institute for China Studies, Chatham House, Nokia Networks, Stanford and Fudan universities, the Council on Foreign Relations, SWP, and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Contact the Richard C. Holbrooke Forum

Jan Techau

Director, Richard C. Holbrooke Forum

T: +49-30-80483 120
F: +49-30-80483 111

jt@americanacademy.de

Sarah Mie Nass

Senior Associate, Programs

T: +49-30-80483 405
F: +49-30-80483 111

sn@americanacademy.de