Hertie School

Panel discussion centres on work, care-giving and how to bring about real equality in today’s world.

Long-held notions of both women’s and men’s roles in society need re-thinking to allow people to reach their full potential, both privately and professionally, said Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of the New America Foundation and the 2018 recipient of the Dr. Michael Endres Prize, in a panel discussion on 9 April at the Hertie School.

Conventional notions of men’s and women’s roles in society, the gender pay gap, the problem of sexual harassment, and other persistent issues of gender bias were the subject of a discussion between Slaughter, Andrew Moravcsik, who is Professor of Politics and Director of the European Union Program at Princeton University and also Slaughter’s husband, and Ana-Cristina Grohnert, who is a former board member at German insurer Allianz and currently Chairman of the Executive Board of Charta der Vielfalt e.V., a non-profit supporting diversity. Master of International Affairs student Polina Garaev and Master of Public Policy student Manual Clemens moderated the discussion.

The Endres Prize is a 50,000-euro research prize honouring distinguished academics whose work centres on topics within the spectrum of the Hertie School’s research and teaching, and who have helped bridge academic research and policymaking. It is named for the long-time Chairman and current honorary Chairman of the Hertie Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Michael Endres.

Four young European Parliament candidates discussed their vision for Europe at the Hertie School on 11 April. On the panel were Hannah Neumann, 35, from Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in Germany, Vojtěch Vais, 26, a member of TOP 09 Party from Czechia, Marco Candela, 34, with Podemos in Spain, and Caroline Flohr, 25, a candidate for the pan-European party Volt in Germany.

The event was part of the The Governance Post event series, a student-led public initiative at the Hertie School together with European Horizons, the Hertie School chapter of a global, student-led policy incubator with a mission to give young people a voice in the future of Europe and in transatlantic relations. Student moderators were Katherine Tepper (MIA), Sophia Engel (MPP) and Johannes Liebig (MPP).

More about the event: https://www.hertie-school.org/en/2019-04-11-young-ep-candidates-discuss-vision-for-europe/

The upcoming 2019 European parliament election is increasingly portrayed as a fundamental turning point in the process of European integration. Following electoral gains in previous European and national elections in recent years, anti-EU populist parties are expected to increase their support even further, challenging the European project at its core. How can we explain the support of these parties and what are the implications for the future of Europe?

In this talk, Daphne Halikiopoulou addresses these questions by focusing on multiple dimensions of populism. She argues that since the EP elections are considered “second order elections,” they will be used to cast protest votes, thus exaggerating the performance of niche parties. However, she argues that the implications of these elections for the European project are still significant, because of the ability of anti-EU populist parties to permeate mainstream ground and delegitimize the idea of a united Europe.

Niklas Anzinger from Dalia Research joins Daphne for a discussion and offers his insights from a European polling perspective.

This event is part of the Hertie School of Governance "Examining Populism" series, which invites speakers of different disciplinary backgrounds for discussions on the causes, effects and implications of the populist rise. It is co-chaired by Hanna Schwander, Professor of Public Policy, and Christian Flachsland, Assistant Professor of Climate and Energy Governance at the Hertie School of Governance.

Catherine de Vries discusses how to move the European project forward ahead of the EP elections.

Catherine de Vries is Professor of Political Behaviour in Europe at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a Hertie School Board member.

Kapuscinski Development Lecture with H.E. José Ramos-Horta, former President of the Republic of Timor-Leste and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

"We are living in very dangerous times. Right here in the heart of Europe forces of good and of intolerance are on a collision course. Across the English Channel there are forces bent on wrecking a magnificent social, political and security architecture built over many decades pushing Europe towards the abyss of chaos and irrelevance. In the course of over 40 years, starting as an innocent and romantic believer in the promises and possibilities of the United Nations, I have seen the best – when the UN lived up to the expectations of the people it deployed to protect – but also I witnessed or heard heart wrenching stories of shocking betrayals on other front lines. I have engaged with UN personnel in my own country and in remote outposts where dedicated field staff absorb the indifference of headquarters, whose envoys descend to evaluate the mission, yet things stayed the same. The UN can do better. We are all the UN and we can and must do better."

Listen to a speech by H.E. José Ramos-Horta, former President of the Republic of Timor-Leste and a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and discussion with Inge Kaul, Adjunct at the Hertie School and the first director of the Human Development Report office of UNDP.

The next European Commission faces a broad array of challenges in regulating the evolving digital world. What are the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, how can you regulate competition and what are the implications for diversity in the digital era? In a discussion between France’s State Secretary for Digital Affairs Mounir Mahjoubi, Stephanie Kaiser, Founder and Managing Director of the digital health platform Heartbeat Labs, and Slava Jankin Mikhaylov, Professor of Data Science and Public Policy, we looked ahead to the EC priorities after the European Parliament elections in May.

Siv Jensen, Norwegian Minister of Finance, and Mark Hallerberg discussed the economic case for rules-based global integration.

Liberal values have guided international cooperation over decades, based on the view that an open economic architecture with common rules is a shared interest, both regionally and globally. A common set of rules has promoted the development of free and open markets across borders, delivering tremendous gains. Yet, signs of less support for liberal core values and the rise of new powers in the global economy might suggest the tide is turning. What is at stake? And how can we best pursue politics that promote open markets and support international rules? Siv Jensen, Norwegian Minister of Finance since 2013, and Mark Hallerberg, Dean of Research and Faculty and Professor of Public Management and Political Economy, discussed these questions.

The Hertie School of the Governance convened top foreign policy thinkers from the United States and Germany on 18 February, directly after the 55th Munich Security Conference. Discussants reflected on the key issues, conclusions and critical challenges to international security raised at the conference, before a packed audience hosted by the school’s Centre for International Security Policy (CISP).

The post-MSC discussion at the Hertie School offered an insider’s view into the conference, bringing together Nicholas Burns, former US Ambassador to NATO and Professor of Diplomacy and International Relations at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Daniela Schwarzer, Director of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Berlin and Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, Professor for Security Policy and Diplomatic Practice at the Hertie School of Governance and Chairman of the MSC.

At the end of 2018 the European Union launched a “war against disinformation” in an attempt to protect the upcoming European Parliament elections in May 2019. The proposed measures include a rapid alert system to support member states in identifying disinformation campaigns, an increased budget of €5m for the detection of disinformation, and pressure on tech companies to get on board with weeding out “fake news.”

Are these measures too little, too late? How concerned do we actually need to be about disinformation in Europe? Russia has often been pointed to as a main source of disinformation but are there other countries or actors that we need to be worried about? And what about the voters in the 28 member states? What can be done to equip them to navigate the digital landscape and find accurate information to guide their voting? Can lessons learned from previous disinformation campaigns help us design better policy responses?

Panelists Paul-Jasper Dittrich, Policy Fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute Berlin, Matthias Spielkamp, founder and executive director of AlgorithmWatch, and Rebekah Tromble, Assistant Professor in the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University, discussed these and other questions at the event chaired by Anita Gohdes, Professor of International and Cyber Security at the Hertie School of Governance.

Reward and punishment: Inside China’s social credit system by Hertie School