Perspective of a Foreign Correspondent: Political Discourse and Social Cohesion in Germany and the United States

The American Council on Germany and the Goethe-Institut facilitated a discussion on “Perspective of a Foreign Correspondent: Political Discourse and Social Cohesion in Germany and the United States”.

Clay Risen , Dr. Anna Sauerbrey , Dr. Steven E. Sokol

Journalists Clay Risen, Reporter and Editor at The New York Times (2004 Young Leader), and Dr. Anna Sauerbrey, Foreign Editor at Die Zeit (2018 ACG Kellen Fellow), shared their insights and experiences reporting on both sides of the Atlantic. The discussion is moderated by the President of the American Council on Germany, Dr. Steven E. Sokol.

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Foreign Correspondents Unplugged

The American Council on Germany and the Goethe-Institut are holding a series of events across the United States highlighting how German and American journalists see political and social developments in Germany, the United States, and internationally. Our guests will take a step back from the stories they follow day to day and address a range of topics that affect citizens in both countries. Following the events, the discussions will be released as podcasts.

Clay Risen

Clay Risen, Reporter and Editor at The New York Times, is the author of Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America. He reported for the Times from Berlin for the month of May. Mr. Risen has been at The New York Times since 2010. Before writing obituaries, he was a senior editor on the 2020 politics team, and before that an editor on the Opinion desk, most recently as the deputy Op-ed editor. Before joining the Times, he worked at The New Republic and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas. He has written eight books, some about U.S. history, some about whiskey. They include “American Rye” and “The Crowded Hour: Theodore Roosevelt, the Rough Riders, and the Dawn of the American Century.” He holds a degree in International Relations from Georgetown University and a Master’s in Social Science from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Anna Sauerbrey

Dr. Anna Sauerbrey is the Foreign Editor at the German largest weekly newspaper, Die Zeit. Before assuming this position, she was Deputy Editor-in-Chief at Der Tagesspiegel, a daily newspaper based in Berlin. She has written about German politics in The New York Times and comments on German and international politics on public German radio and television programs. She has also appeared on German television and on CNN and the BBC world service. She is the author of Machtwechsel. Wie eine neue Politikergeneration das Land verändert (Rowohlt Berlin, 2022) a book on the generation of German policymakers succeeding Angela Merkel. Dr. Sauerbrey received a Ph.D. in History from the University of Mainz in 2009. She has also studied Political Science and Journalism. She was an Arthur F. Burns Fellow with the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2013 and has extensively written about transatlantic relations and U.S. domestic politics since. She was a ACG Kellen Fellow in 2018.

Dr. Steven E. Sokol

Steven E. Sokol has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. Previously, he served as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and prior to that he was the Vice President and Director of Programs at the American Council on Germany. Prior to this, Dr. Sokol served as the Deputy Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, was the Head of the Project Management Department at the Bonn International Center for Conversion GmbH (BICC), and a Program Officer in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Earlier in his career, he also was a Program Manager at the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) and was a paralegal at Fulbright & Jaworski.

He holds a Doctorate in Law and Policy from Northeastern University as well as an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. He has also studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universität in Berlin. Dr. Sokol serves on several non-profit boards and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was awarded a Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) for his work to strengthen German-American relations.

Episode 11 Perspective of a Foreign Correspondent: Political Discourse and Social Cohesion in Germany and the United States

Foreign Correspondents Unplugged