Global Challenges
Ideas with Impact
 Atlantic-community.org is proud to announce its policy workshop competition “Ideas with Impact” for students at German universities, sponsored by the Embassy of the United States in Berlin.
We want to encourage students to develop policy recommendations for pressing issues that have continuously seen deadlock in the international community, yet also offer new opportunities for increased transatlantic cooperation: climate change, Iran's nuclear program, and relations between Russia and the West. More information.
Neither the Bush nor the Obama administration could successfully alter the bad US image in combating climate change. ++ Given latest decisions in US climate policy, the US seems unwilling to take the lead. ++ However, the US …More
Editorial Team: At the culmination of atlantic-community.org’s policy workshop competition, German students Julia Grauvogel, Philipp Große and Sascha Lohmann discussed their team’s policy recommendations with US Ambassador Philip D. Murphy and CDU/CSU Foreign Policy Spokesman Philipp Mißfelder. …More
Editorial Team: You are cordially invited to a dialogue hosted by the Atlantic Initiative in Berlin between the US Ambassador Philip D. Murphy, CDU/CSU Foreign Policy Spokesperson Philipp Mißfelder and the winners of our student competition. The dialogue will focus on Iran’s nuclear program, Russia and the West, and climate change. …More
Memo 29: The United States and the EU countries need to lead by example on climate change in order to reestablish moral authority. Environmental sustainability should be made part of the criteria for diplomatic relations. An online and democratic global patent pool will enhance technology transfers. …More
Editorial Team: As the delegates at the Climate Change Conference in Cancun search for solutions, atlantic-community.org is focusing on how the transatlantic partners can best cooperate. As the final part of our student competition sponsored by the U.S. Mission to Germany, we are publishing six short-listed articles. …More
Jan Schierkolk: A transnational collaborative knowledge pool with digital grassroots involvement would enable and incentivize unprecedented climate change technology transfer. The online medium would help bypass current political constraints and promote sustainable development and empowerment by providing measureable reputation gains for contributors. …More
Julia Franziska Grauvogel: The EU must foster reduction targets that are superior to those proposed by the US and engage both the US and China in order to establish a new threesome leadership of climate protection. Financial concessions to developing countries and the governance struture for a future Green Fund are key. …More
Edson Ziso: Post Copenhagen, the emphasis should no longer be on just reducing emissions, but rather creating viable alternatives. Taxation on both the production and consumption of environmentally unfriendly products is required. Also, the EU and US should provide clean technology transfers to developing nations. …More
Philip Strothmann: Actions against climate change need to be global. However, the US and the EU have a historical responsibility to ensure that they lead by example. Accordingly, EU-US should realize that climate policy is energy policy and focus on renewable energy technology as a way forward. …More
Dominik Hübner: Diverse national interests have halted progress during previous climate negotiations. The EU and US can lead efforts in combating climate change by advocating smaller, regional cooperation forums with fewer actors. These would prepare the ground for a future workable global treaty. …More
Salvador Santino F Regilme: For the EU and US to tackle global climate change, they need to adopt a three pronged approach: Revive their identities as normative powers, incentivize companies toward cleaner technology and act upon their soft power to convince the developing world. …More
Memo 28: Relations between Moscow and the West suffer from a lack of trust. Berlin can play a key role in overcoming this by “resetting” foreign policy discourse and facilitating greater civil society engagement as well as economic and security cooperation. …More
Marcel Lewicki: Many important issues currently facing the West such as energy security and terrorism, can be resolved more easily with the help of Russia. Germany should play a key role in drawing Moscow closer to Europe in order to do so. …More
Benjamin Hanke: Germany’s economic interests are the key obstacle to a closer link between Russia and the West. Berlin is following an appeasement policy towards Moscow due to a need for energy. What Germany needs to do is to revive its European vision and spearhead a common EU approach to Moscow. …More
Guli Babadjanova: Fuelled by a recent economic boom and past glories, the Russian people still regard their country as a great power. The West needs to recognize and respect this, while still pushing for human rights reform and investing in Russia’s modernization. …More
Matthias Conrad: Russia’s top security priority is the need to adapt to socio‐economic challenges that will be aggravated by the effects of climate change. The West with Germany playing a leading role should engage in bilateral cooperation with Moscow and intensify energy interdependence. …More
Philipp Johannes Große: The West needs to promote accountability and the rule of law in Russia. Focus should be on reaching out to the general population, not self-declared elites. Germany’s position should be firmly rooted in the West, not midway between Paris and Moscow. …More
Alexandra Vasileva: To overcome the challenges toward closer cooperation between Russia and the West, the political dialogue must be changed. The West needs to alter its judgmental rhetoric and provide true incentives for partnership such as respecting the “shared neighborhood” and visa liberalization. …More
Memo 27: The only way to overcome the deadlock on Iran’s nuclear program is to engage constructively with the existing regime. Progress will only be made when both sides admit their past failures and engage in genuine ‘concrete reciprocity’. …More
Memo 26: The character of the Iranian State is such that rapprochement with the West is impossible. Therefore, a systematic policy of undermining the regime is the only way to stop the nuclear program and prevent a military confrontation. …More
Editorial Team: From the 26th to the 29th of October, we focused on transatlantic policy concerning Iran’s nuclear program. As part of our student competition sponsored by the U.S. Mission to Germany, six short-listed articles were published and debated. …More
Alexander Pyka: War rhetoric and demands for the suspension of the Iranian nuclear program clearly do not work. It is time to make concessions to Tehran in order to move forward and prevent the accession of another country into the nuclear weapons club. …More
Felix Haass: In the past, Transatlantic-Iranian relations have suffered from mutual mistrust on both sides. This has been a major impediment to a solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis. Any policy aimed at resolving the issue has to address these trust issues in one way or the other. …More
Sascha Lohmann: A system of ‘concrete reciprocity’ is required between the Transatlantic partners and Tehran. Moreover, the psychological dimension and the domestic factors of Iranian nuclear politics also have to be taken into consideration. …More
Felix F. Seidler: The situation in Iran will only change through the ousting of Ahmadinejad by democratic means. This will require the West to energize the opposition and youth of the country via the media. …More
Tobias Heinrich Siegfried Sauer: The West’s current approach towards Iran is failing. Diplomatic efforts should be boosted, incentives concentrated on, and sanctions strategy reformed. …More
Niklas Anzinger: President Obama’s current dialogue policy legitimizes and strengthens radical forces in Iran, while it weakens moderates. The West should adopt a more confrontational strategy which includes consistent political and economic isolation. …More
Final Call for Submisssions: This competition for students at German universities is sponsored by the Embassy of the United States in Berlin. The goal is to develop policy recommendations for increased transatlantic cooperation. …More
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