Uncommon Decency

John Kampfner was a young reporter in East Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. He has since experienced first-hand the country's unique journey through reunification, multiculturalism, migration, the European project and its own troubled memory of the Holocaust. John’s ode to Germany in Why the Germans Do It Better (2020) is about a deep admiration for the country’s embrace of maturity, consensus, political moderation and liberal democracy. The book is a fascinating read, timelier than ever as Chancellor Angela Merkel reaches her twilight months in office.

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Trump has rattled the transatlantic relationship, but is he as anomalous as he’s made out to be? In Paradise Lost (2019), Ben Haddad argues that the trends pulling America away from a position of liberal hegemony buttressing Europe’s security infrastructure are older and more profound. In it, he calls for Europe to wake up to a new world order marked by the return of History and grow its own strategic autonomy. A former senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and advisor to presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, Ben is currently director of the Future Europe Initiative at the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. Through his own journey and work, Ben encapsulates the kind of transatlantic conversation that Uncommon Decency will work to spark.

Rate and review Uncommon Decency on Apple Podcasts, and send us your comments or questions at @UnDecencyPod or [email protected].