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A New Road Map for American-German Relations, a memorandum to the US president-elect, details how Germany and the US can cooperate in the coming years on global issues. Therein, the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) makes a variety of policy recommendations:

• Craft a coordinated strategy on Russia to avoid a transatlantic rift, which would be exploited by Russia to the detriment of the US and Europe.
• Engage Russia, together with Germany, more creatively on issues not currently dominating the discussion, such as arms control and proliferation issues, global health, and global warming.
• Use NATO's sixtieth anniversary in 2009 as an opportunity for an important speech early in the year on NATO's strategic orientation convincing America's European allies, and especially Angel Merkel, to extend a strategic debate into their nations.
• Use Germany's role as an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process to achieve a two-state solution.
• Negotiate with Iran together with the EU-3 and Russia under a common strategy that includes sticks and carrots.
• Involve Germany in non-proliferation efforts concerning state and non-state actors.
• Implement common environmental standards (e.g., in the automobile sector) with Europe.
• Use leverage of combined American-European economic weight (60% of global GDP) to shape new economic world order.
• Invest political capital into the Transatlantic Economic Council.
• Jointly push Asian countries and in particular China to let their currencies float freely.

Watch an exclusive interview with Jackson Janes, detailing the opportunities and pitfalls of the American-German relationship in the years to come.

Dr. Jackson Janes is the executive director of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at John Hopkins University.

David Neil Lebhar holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Davidson College and is currently an editorial intern at atlantic-community.org.

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• Jens F. Laurson & George A. Pieler: Renaissance of Protectionism
• Nikolas Kirrill Gvosdev: Improving Transatlantic Relations Requires a Frank Dialogue
• Memo 9: Afghan Police and Economy: Lynchpins for Success