Editorial Team: A civil society initiative is working to reopen the Amerika Haus Berlin, where permanent activities were suspended in 2006. A two month series of panel discussions about the US elections of 2008 brought the house back to life, and showed the potential of this open meeting space.
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Jesse Schwartz: The 2008 election evinces the timeless notion of America as more than a place - “At its best, it is an idea.” Barack Obama’s meteoric rise to the White House substantiates this conviction. Moreover, it seems to confirm that the Atlantic Ocean may not be as wide as it was just four years ago.
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From the Editorial Team: Read about the Amerikafest and watch and listen to reactions from the crowd. Find out what the people atlantic-community.org interviewed in Berlin think of America and expect from future of transatlantic relations.
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Mathias Döpfner: 2008 will be an American year. In America the race to elect a presidential candidate is on, in Berlin a new US embassy is to open, but above all we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift.
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Today globalization takes place in places where masses of people live and work: in cities. But in order to earn the title “global” a city must provide ideas and value that impact the rest of the world. Additionally, global cities are characterized by bigger financial centers, the best universities, diverse inhabitants, the best exchange of information, the most influential international
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The planned speech of Presidential candidate Barack Obama in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin threatens to turn into a provincial farce. ++ Unlike Washington D.C., where the US federal government decides who can speak at the nation’s political sanctuaries, in Berlin, local and federal politicians use the invitation for political profiling purposes. ++ Berlin’s mayor wants to play in the
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Representatives at the Berlin Middle East Conference reaffirmed their commitment to the US-initiated peace process in Annapolis. ++ Yet the approach has been changed. ++ The creation of an efficient security mechanism aims at setting the preconditions for the Annapolis “two-state solution.” ++ A major investment in the Palestinian police and judicial structures would enable the creation of a
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