Session I - Berlin
The first session of the Global Governance 2020 program took place from the 17-21 January 2010, in Berlin, organized by the Global Public Policy Institute in collaboration with the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, Fudan University, the Brookings Institution, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the Hertie School of Governance which also hosted the session. The program was launched under funding from the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Transatlantic Program of the German Government (ERP Grant administered by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology).
In Berlin, the twenty-four GG2020 fellows from China, Germany and the United States met for the first time to launch the program that will span an entire year and will bring the group together for two more meetings in Shanghai (July 2010) and Washington D.C. (January 2011). During this time, the GG2020 fellows collaborate in finding ways to adjust the mechanisms of global governance in order to approach future global challenges more effectively. The program aims to build a strong and lasting community among those who have the ambition and imagination to shape the future of global problem-solving. Throughout the program, Johannes Gabriel, expert on trend analysis and scenario planning working with Society and Technology Research Group, Daimler AG, Berlin lend additional support to the fellows’ efforts to jointly analyze different pathways into the future of global governance.
Helmut Anheier, the new dean of the Hertie School of Governance, warmly welcomed all 24 fellows to Berlin. The opening session of the first day was kicked-off with a discussion and presentation of different interpretations of the term “Global Governance” followed by an expert panel discussion on the overarching question of the legitimacy of multilateral policy-making, which bears significance for the shaping of global governance. Panel discussants included distinguished scholars on the topic who also serve as the GG2020 Steering Committee members: Chen Yugang, Professor of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University; Inge Kaul, Adjunct Professor, Hertie School of Governance; Andrew Moravcsik, Professor of Politics, Princeton University and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; Wolfgang Reinicke, GPPi Director and Non-Resident Fellow, Brookings Institution; and Michael Zürn, Founding Dean of the Hertie School of Governance and Professor and Director of Research Unit "International Institutions and Transnational Conflicts", Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (WZB). Moderating the panel was GPPi Associate Director Thorsten Benner.
- From left to right: Andrew Moravcsik, Inge Kaul, Michael Zürn, Thorsten Benner,
Chen Yugang and Wolfgang Reinicke during the GG2020 panel discussion in Berlin.
Pictures from www.mephotography.viewbook.com
Working groups
- The working group on governing global financial
markets disscussing trajectories of identified factors.
The central part of the GG2020 program is the fellows’ intensive work in the working groups, each group focusing on one specific global challenge: climate change, nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament and global economic governance. Starting with the first task of defining what they deem as the most important goal for global governance to be reached until the year 2020 within each of their issue areas, the fellows then moved into analyzing possible pathways into the future by employing innovative methods of trend analysis and scenario-planning.
The subsequent days saw the fellows identify and analyze the factors that determine the nature of global governance in the three policy fields and might influence them in the future. The fellows selected a set of crucial factors and discussed their significance, uncertainty and interdependencies before exploring the different trajectories for these factors. The emerging picture of thinkable futures, the tapestry of the possible and plausible, allowed the fellows to contemplate a number of possible scenarios regarding the future shape of global governance. During the further course of the GG2020 program, these scenarios will serve as the basis for identifying pathways into a desirable future and to formulate concrete policy recommendations to improve the capability of global governance to follow the best path possible and avoid the negative scenarios.
During the Berlin session, the fellows in their working groups had the opportunity to draw on the insights and expertise of specialists in each of the three policy areas including Monica Araya, E3G London; Henrik Enderlein, Hertie School of Governance; and Richard Gowan, New York University, among others. The opportunity for sharing insights with external experts and using them as an additional source of information regarding these complex issues provided a vivid and lively exchange of ideas and further discussion which carried on after the working group sessions and into the evenings.
Discussions with policy-makers and experts
- GG2020 fellows were invited to a discussion with
Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber CBE,
Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate
Impact Research (PIK) and one of the world’s
leading climate scientists
In order to constantly test the policy relevance and feasibility of the working group results as well as to give the fellows the opportunity to try out and adapt their lines of arguments, in-depth discussions with ranking policy-makers and experts represent an integral part of the program.
During the GG2020 Berlin session, the fellows visited and discussed their ideas with various policy makers, among them Peter Ammon, State Secretary, Federal Foreign Office; Jörg Asmussen, State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance; Andreas Michaelis, Director-General for Middle Eastern Affairs and North Africa, Federal Foreign Office; Hans Joachim Schellnhuber CBE, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; and Karsten Voigt, former Coordinator of German-North American Cooperation, Federal Foreign Office. During these discussions, the fellows presented their initial results and reasoning and received an assessment, additional input and advice from the policy-makers and experts that was then incorporated into the further efforts of the working groups.
To view more GG2020 Berlin session pictures, please click here.
Cultural activities
Part of each GG2020 session in all three cities (Berlin, Shanghai and Washington D.C.) is the important cultural and societal component the program aims to share with the fellows, providing them with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the history, culture and society of the respective host city and country. During the Berlin session, the fellows had the opportunity to visit and have open and animated discussions with students at a local high school, the “Albrecht Dürer Gymnasium”, Neukölln. The “Albrecht Dürer Gymnasium” represents an excellent example of how to use the diversity of heritage and background of the school’s student body and thereby illustrates some of the challenges and great opportunities that Germany as a whole will face in the future. The fellows also explored important aspects of German and Berlin history during a historic morning tour that included visits to the Berlin Wall Memorial at Bernauer Straße and another to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The evening’s highlights included dinners in different neighbourhoods across Berlin and cuisines from different parts of the world showcasing the cultural diversity of Germany’s capital.
To view more GG2020 Berlin session pictures, please click here.
- GG2020 fellows discussing over dinner. In addition to visiting some of Berlin's
historic memorials the fellow had the opportunity to experience a cross-section of very different restaurants Berlin has to offer.