The most recent national elections in two of the world’s leading economic powers and democratic stalwarts—Germany and the US—saw ethnonationalist parties closing in on taking power. The recent rapid rise in support for Germany’s radical right AfD party; and the success of Donald Trump’s MAGA movement now threaten to bring the institutional pillars and norms …
The Midwestern Leaders Study Tour 2025 brought US Midwest leaders Steve Patterson, Anne Mervenne, Kent Smith, Ryan Sorenson, and Martina Guzmán together with German counterparts to tackle industrial and climate transitions. Led by John Austin, Fellow at the Academy of International Affairs NRW, the delegation launched at the Summer Academy in Bonn. Through subnational diplomacy, …
Irrespective of a community’s or region’s size and historic economic and social composition, there are diverse paths that are being found for economic renewal in similarly situated older industrial and transitioning communities. These paths for new prosperity must be built on whatever local assets and identity the community has to work with, and be locally …
Even as the most unsettling threat to European democracies appears to be coming from across the Atlantic, within the continent there has been for almost a decade the growing specter of right-wing nationalists gaining control of power in once stable democracies. While analysts offer numerous explanations for the growth in internal support for what often …
To effectively counter economic competition, global security threats, and assaults on the rules-based global order from authoritarian nations, democratic allies must work together to build support and push the adoption and integration of two core national strategies: 1) building stronger domestic economies and strengthening democracy within nations- through large-scale inward place-based investments in people, innovation …