Director’s Message

July 2023

A Message from the Director

In the summer of 2023, we celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the Center’s founding (well, add three deferrals due to public health concerns) in Munich. We proudly look back at educating the first generation of transatlantic leaders, and through our active program of events and conferences delivering on our mission to serve as a hub of European affairs and transatlantic relations in the capital region and beyond.  And we look forward to educating the next generation of transatlantic leaders that will steer us through calm seas and troubled waters.

Currently, the state of the alliance is strong. The Biden government has realigned with the European Union as a long-term, trusted partner. Both share a commitment to manage the effects of climate change and aspire to a long-term program of decarbonization, even as Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine upended European energy security and threw up obstacles to a Green Deal. But the war brought the transatlantic partners together in their determination to reject the imperialist invasion and help Ukraine defend itself.  They will need to support each other as new alliances of barely democratic or anti-democratic forces coalesce in Eurasia in particular.

Economic, political, and ecological uncertainty breed anxieties about cultural belonging and differences. Migration and the militarization of borders will remain a chief concern for politicians and policymakers (as well as ordinary citizens and artists) in the foreseeable future.  Our events program on the annual theme of “Borders and Boundaries” will tackle these challenges in the coming academic year.

The BMW Center enjoys the support of old stalwarts and new friends, from the German Academic Exchange Service, the French Embassy, and the BMW corporation, to the Endesa Foundation, and our partners at the University of Zurich.  We are grateful to our Advisory Council, which has provided sound and sage advice.  And we very much look forward to the arrival of our new cohort, the MAGES class of 2025—welcome!

In closing, I want to thank the Center’s very capable and fun-loving staff, my colleagues in the Master’s Program of German and European Studies, as well as alumni and students, for making the Center such an inspiring community.

Katrin Sieg
Graf Goltz Professor and Director
BMW Center for German and European Studies
Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University