Episoder

  • Listen to a discussion with Siim Sikkut, former government CIO of Estonia, about his new book 'Digital Government Excellence: Lessons from Effective Digital Leaders'. The event took place on September 23 at the Hertie School and was moderated by Luciana Cingolani with an introduction by Gerhard Hammerschmid.

  • Scholars have become more interested in secret statecraft in global
    politics, especially in its digital manifestations. Unfortunately, the
    self-hiding nature of the phenomena make them hard to study.

    Jon Lindsay, Associate Professor at the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy and Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, points out that this is true in spades of the seminal case of Stuxnet, which has had more influence on our understanding of cyber warfare than cyber warfare ever had on Iranian enrichment. A decade on, new information and subsequent events provide additional context, but this unusual case remains shrouded in unusual secrecy.

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  • This year's iteration of our speaker series Challenges in International Security examines the concept of deterrence, often defined as “the action of discouraging an action or event through instilling doubt or fear of the consequences” (Oxford Dictionary).

    In the realm of international security, deterrence is one of the most widely used political strategies, yet it’s application is very complex and often poorly understood. The speaker series will shed light on the various aspects of deterrence and how it operates in the different international security domains: conventional, nuclear, legal, economic and cyber.

    To kick us off, Professor Marina Henke and Professor Julian Wucherpfennig will provide an overview of the theoretical dimensions of deterrence. How is it supposed to work in theory? What difficulties are encountered in practice? How did the concept evolve and get fine-tuned during the Cold War? Where are we now?

  • In recent years, questions about the credibility of the US nuclear guarantee have re-emerged, leading to debates among some US allies about potential alternatives to US extended deterrence. A new task force report, chaired by Chuck Hagel, Malcolm Rifkind and Kevin Rudd with Ivo Daalder, analyzes the risk of potential nuclear proliferation among US allies and provides a set of policy recommendations to confront it. In this public event, Ivo Daalder, President of the Chicago Council, former US Permanent Representative to NATO and project director of the task force, and Wolfgang Ischinger who served as a member of the task force will discuss the findings of the report – with a particular emphasis on the ongoing debate in Germany and Europe about the future of US extended deterrence and NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangement.

  • NATO's nuclear sharing arrangement – the deployment of some 200 U.S. nuclear weapons in five European NATO member states as part of NATO's nuclear deterrence strategy – has come under pressure. Some analysts see the current nuclear-sharing arrangement as technologically outdated and no longer capable of deterring possible aggression against NATO. For others, the immediate elimination of these weapons would be an important step toward nuclear disarmament, while still others warn that ending NATO's nuclear sharing arrangement would severely harm the alliance's defense strategy and cohesion. This panel explores these perspectives and discuss what the future of NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangement in Europe might look like.

    Guest speakers:

    Dr. Pia Fuhrhop heads the Berlin Office of IFSH since September 2019. Previously she has worked as foreign policy advisor to Omid Nouripour, Member of the German Bundestag. She has held research positions with Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin and worked as a consultant for the German Ministry for Development and International Cooperation. She works on transatlantic security and German foreign and security policies. She also holds a PhD from Free University Berlin, awarded for a dissertation on European influence on US crisis management policies.

    Prof. Dr. Alexander Mattelaer is the Vice Dean Research of the Institute for European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Egmont – the Royal Institute for International Relations and sits on the scientific committee of the Belgian Royal Higher Institute for Defence. As a Fulbright Schuman fellow he completed research stays at Harvard University and at the National Defense University. He obtained his PhD in Political Science from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Master degrees from the University of Bath and the University of Leuven. His research interests include the politics of European integration, transatlantic relations and NATO, defence policy-making, and the ongoing redefinition of state sovereignty.

    Dr. Jacek Durkalec is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). He is also affiliated to the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford University. His research focuses on U.S. policy of extended deterrence in the context of current global challenges and increasingly integrated spheres of strategic deterrence and influence. In particular, he explores how U.S. alliances in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region need to adapt to multidomain and transregional character of 21st century competition and conflict.

  • The signs of growing far-right extremism are all around us, and communities across the globe are struggling to understand how so many people are being radicalized and why they are increasingly attracted to violent movements. In this talk, Cynthia Miller-Idriss argues that instead of focusing on the how and why of far-right radicalization, we might seek answers in the physical and virtual spaces where hate is cultivated. She shows how far-right groups are swelling their ranks and developing their cultural, intellectual, and financial capacities in a variety of mainstream settings. She discusses how young people on the margins of our communities are targeted in these settings, and how the path to radicalization is a nuanced process of moving in and out of far-right scenes throughout adolescence and adulthood. The talk reviews definitions, tactics, and underlying ideas of modern far-right extremism through an eye-opening focus on the mainstream places and spaces where today’s far right is engaging and ensnaring young people.

    This event is part the new speaker series "Challenges in International Security" hosted by the Centre for International Security.

    Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a professor at the American University in Washington, DC, where she directs the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL) in the Center for University Excellence (CUE).

  • With its contextualised analysis of the European Court of Human Rights' (ECtHR) engagement in Turkey's Kurdish conflict since the early 1990s, "Limits of Supranational Justice" makes a much-needed contribution to scholarships on supranational courts and legal mobilisation. Based on a socio-legal account of the efforts of Kurdish lawyers in mobilising the ECtHR on behalf of abducted, executed, tortured and displaced civilians under emergency rule, and a doctrinal legal analysis of the ECtHR's jurisprudence in these cases, this book powerfully demonstrates the Strasbourg court's failure to end gross violations in the Kurdish region. It brings together legal, political, sociological and historical narratives, and highlights the factors enabling the perpetuation of state violence and political repression against the Kurds. The effectiveness of supranational courts can best be assessed in hard cases such as Turkey, and this book demonstrates the need for a reappraisal of current academic and jurisprudential approaches to authoritarian regimes.

    Dilek Kurban is a Fellow and Lecturer at the Hertie School in Berlin.

  • Listen to a presentation by Daniel Nexon and Alexander Cooley based on their recent book Exit from Hegemony: The Unravelling of American Global Order.

    In Exit from Hegemony, Cooley and Nexon explore three processes that have eroded US leadership: exit from above via great-power challengers, exit from below via weaker states leveraging the availability of new patrons, and exit from within via counter-order movements and political parties. They argue that Trump has been both a symptom and accelerant of these processes and discuss what a new Biden administration can and can’t do to alter the trajectory of change in the international order.

  • Germany’s Constitutional Court has long been a powerful actor within the German political system. Recent decisions of the Court, however, indicate its increasing willingness to flex its muscles in European politics too. The German Court’s action have received a torrent of criticism: that it is undermining EU law, overstepping its judicial mandate and even lending implicit support to governments undermining rule of law standards. Others have defended the Court, arguing that its decision challenges important deficiencies in the way the Eurozone is organised. Teresa Violante, Ana Bobić and Franz Mayer present both sides of this debate which is hosted by Mark Dawson and Thu Nguyen.

  • he Centre for Fundamental Rights is honoured to welcome Tendayi Achiume for a talk on racial borders. This presentation will aim to discuss the intersection between racial injustice and migration governance from international law perspective.

    Tendayi Achiume is Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, and a research associate of the African Center for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. She is also the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance and is the first woman to serve in this role since its creation in 1994. The current focus of her scholarship is the global governance of racism and xenophobia and the legal and ethical implications of colonialism for contemporary international migration. In 2016, she co-chaired the Annual Meeting of the American Society of International Law. She is also a recipient of the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award—the highest university-wide honour for excellence in teaching. Her publications include: Migration as Decolonization, Stanford Law Review; Governing Xenophobia, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law; Syria, Cost-Sharing and the Responsibility to Protect Refugees, Minnesota Law Review; and Beyond Prejudice: Structural Xenophobic Discrimination Against Refugees, Georgetown Journal of International Law.

    Achiume's presentation will discuss some of the findings of her recent report to the UN General Assembly on racial and xenophobic discrimination, emerging digital technologies in border and immigration enforcement. This report focuses on border and immigration enforcement and addresses the discriminatory impact of emerging digital technologies on migrants, stateless persons, refugees and other non-citizens.

    The discussion will be moderated by Cathryn Costello, Professor of Fundamental Rights and Co-Director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School.

    This event is a part of the Fundamental Rights in Practice event series hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights.

  • On 16 September, Alice Margaria opened the programme of the Fundamental Rights Research Colloquium for the new academic year with a presentation of her book, The Construction of Fatherhood: The Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Michaela Kreyenfeld will be a discussant of the book.

  • In November 2019, the head of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency described the EU ‘hotspot’ in Moria, Lesbos, Greece, as “the single most worrying fundamental rights issue that we are confronting anywhere in the European Union.” An overcrowded place of confinement for those seeking refuge in the EU, it was destroyed in a devastating fire days ago, leaving nearly 13,000 men, women, and children without shelter or access to basic services.

    In an apparently reaction to this tragedy, the European Commission brought forward the publication date of its new ‘Pact on Migration’ to Wed 23 September, with Commission President Von der Leyen promising ‘We'll take a human & humane approach. Saving lives at sea is not optional and those countries who fulfil their legal and moral duties or are more exposed than others, must be able to rely on the solidarity of our whole EU.’

    This rapid reaction event brings together diverse voices on refugee protection to offer perspectives on the events in Lesbos, the ‘hotspot’ approach, and the Commission’s newly published Pact.

    The event is in association with the German Law Journal Special Issue on Border Justice: Migration and Accountability for Human Rights Violations (2020)

  • In an online presentation on 20 May, Mark Dawson, Professor of European Law and Governance at the Hertie School, discussed how the EU’s political process affects the level of rights protection afforded by EU law. During the presentation the two stages of the political process affects were discussed: first, the analysis of how institutional politics plays an important role in the evolution of the EU fundamental rights framework, and second, an empiric display of how legislative interaction affects the level of protection provided by three important EU legislative acts.

  • How far does the German constitution, compared to other legal orders, allow for fundamental rights to be restricted in times of crises? How far can the German State change its institutional set-up as well as its legislative procedure to adjust to crisis mode? Where are the constitutional limits to restrictions such as curfews, social distancing and forced closure of businesses and has the German State in its COVID-19 response observed them?

    A presentation by Pierre Thielbörger (Ruhr University Bochum/Hertie School). This webinar is part of the Fundamental Rights Research colloquium hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights

  • A webinar presentation by Başak Çalı, Professor of International Law and Director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights at the Hertie School.

    Fundamental rights-based analysis offers an important legal and ethical yardstick to evaluate the responses of states to the COVID-19 pandemic: Have states around the world tackled the pandemic through rights-protecting and rights-respecting policies? Have they offered timely responses to protect the right to life of the populations at risk? Have they struck the right balance between competing rights at stake, such as the right to health and right to life versus the right to privacy, social and economic rights, freedom of movement and freedom of assembly? Do the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic carry the potential to undermine fundamental rights protections in its aftermath, in particular, through the introduction of new surveillance technologies?

    This webinar is part of the Fundamental Rights Research colloquium hosted by the Centre for Fundamental Rights.

  • In Episode 4 of our Hertie School Online Education Training Series, we talk about why it can be a good thing to be online and take the innovation with us back on campus

    This podcast series is created by Annika Zorn, Director Digital Learning and PhD Programmes at the Hertie School. Annika is the founder of the Florence Online School of Regulation, trainer of early-career researchers in teaching at the higher education level and trainer of professional trainers. She is editor and author of the book "Higher Eduction in the Digital Age" (links below) with Jeff Haywood and Jean-Michel Glachant (open-access chapters are also available).

    Host: Ashley Lauren Bamford-Kaemmereit

  • In Episode 3 of our Online Education Training Series, we talk about how to stay in touch with your students.

    +++ Formative feedback to get a better insight into what is happening in class +++
    In your course, you assess the learning of your students - often at the end of the semester or, for example, as a mid-term exam. Students might have to give a presentation or submit other graded assignments. These types of graded assessments that give a summary of what a student has learned are called ‘summative feedback’.

    A second type of feedback is called ‘formative feedback’ and is usually not graded. Formative feedback serves students and teachers to understand better how the learning – and the teaching! – are going. These can be small quizzes, a Q&A during a class to see whether students are able to summarise a theoretical framework, or the submission of the final essay’s outline.
    Here are a few examples of formative feedback you can use in an online:

    1) Small online quizzes during the class:
    Online quizzes give you immediate feedback on your teaching: Did my students catch what I just explained? As online quizzes are usually anonymous, students will not be afraid to give the wrong answer. That is a great tool to get feedback from everyone in the class how their learning is going. If half the class gives the wrong answer, maybe you want to spend a bit more time on that topic/concept? Also students will get immediate feedback whether they have understood the content of the class.
    You can set-up quizzes in many webinar software or you can use tools, such as Socrative (https://socrative.com/) or Kahoot (https://create.kahoot.it/login).

    2) One-minute paper at the end of the class, or just before the start of a new class:
    At the start or end of the class, ask your students to sit down and write a summary answering the following two points.
    - What was the most important thing you learnt this morning/during the last class?
    - What was the muddiest (most unclear) concept or idea during this morning’s sessions/during last class?
    It is good if you share a big clock on the screen. People should be already logged in the Moodle course, so they can upload the assignment there, as soon as the bell rings.

    This exercise will give you a good and quick insight even in relatively big classes of what information ‘sticks’. You will also identify if there is a recurrent misunderstanding or misconception.

    In case the class is not too big, you could also ask your students to submit the answers via the tool Mentimeter (https://www.mentimeter.com/) so that you can share all the (anonymous) answers on the big screen.

    3) Stop-and-go lecture with peer feedback:
    This type of feedback is useful for lecture formats. As a teacher you interrupt your lecture every 10 minutes to allow students to discuss in pairs for a few minutes.
    Student pairs get in touch via video/audio call or in a chat. You need to give a very precise task: ‘Summarise in your own words what was the most important point of this part of the lecture’. Or ‘ Please discuss whether there was anything unclear for one or the other and try to explain to each other’. Students could also use social media tools to get in touch. Set up the pairs before the class and ask students to already get in touch with each other. In case your lecture takes place on Microsoft Teams for example, that would allow students to contact each other within the same platform very easily. But they could also start a private chat within a webinar software.


    This podcast series is created by Annika Zorn, Director Digital Learning and PhD Programmes at the Hertie School. Annika is the founder of an online school (Florence online School of Regulation), trainer of early-career researchers in teaching at the higher education level and trainer of professional trainers. She is editor and author of the book "Higher Eduction in the Digital Age" with Jeff Haywood and Jean-Michel Glachant.

    Host: Ashley Lauren Bamford-Kaemmereit

  • In Episode 2 of our Hertie School Online Education Training Series, we talk about why it is a good idea to pre-record your lecture (anyway).

    +++ Tools and ideas in this podcast +++

    Warm-up your voice before you start recording your lecture:
    Many professional speakers use tongue twisters to do so. Find some examples here that warm up your voice and mouth for different sounds: https://www.ef.com/wwen/english-resources/tongue-twisters-english/

    Recording a slide presentation:
    PowerPoint has a powerful built-in recording tool. This video from Microsoft explains how it works: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/record-a-slide-show-with-narration-and-slide-timings-0b9502c6-5f6c-40ae-b1e7-e47d8741161c. One thing to remember is that you should only go forward through the slides, as if you go backwards any narration for the previous slide is overwritten. You should also pause from talking when changing slides as one second of audio will be lost.
    Keynote is another option if you are a mac user and already have this software. This webpage from Apple will show you how.: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/keynote/tan8a5df9cc5/mac.=

    Screen recording:
    It could be that you need to include something that can’t be added to a slide, for example to show a coding application. In this case it could be possible to make a screen recording with voice over. It is important to remember that the whole of your screen will be recorded, so close any apps you are not using and personal email, consider that your desktop background may be seen and possibly disconnect from the internet to avoid any notifications popping up.
    Screen recording comes included in a Mac, you will find instructions here.: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208721
    For Windows users it is a little more complicated as you will need to install software. We suggest OBS Studio: https://obsproject.com/. This is fairly easy to use, here you will find a quick start guide and FAQs: https://obsproject.com/wiki/OBS-Studio-Quickstart


    This podcast series is created by Annika Zorn, Director Digital Learning and PhD Programmes at the Hertie School. Annika is the founder of an online school (Florence online School of Regulation), trainer of early-career researchers in teaching at the higher education level and trainer of professional trainers. She is editor and author of the book "Higher Eduction in the Digital Age" with Jeff Haywood and Jean-Michel Glachant.

    Host: Ashley Lauren Bamford-Kaemmereit

  • In Episode 1 of our Hertie School Online Education Training Series, we talk about why your first class online might be especially challenging.

    +++ Tools and ideas in this podcast +++
    Create a word cloud in your first class to see where people are connecting from and share it on the main screen. Two tools you can use to do that:
    - PollEveryWhere: https://www.polleverywhere.com/word-cloud
    - Answergarden: https://answergarden.ch/


    This podcast series is created by Annika Zorn, Director Digital Learning and PhD Programmes at the Hertie School. Annika is the founder of the Florence Online School of Regulation, trainer of early-career researchers in teaching at the higher education level and trainer of professional trainers. She is editor and author of the book "Higher Eduction in the Digital Age" (links below) with Jeff Haywood and Jean-Michel Glachant (open-access chapters are also available).

    Higher Eduction in the Digital Age (2018):
    - Book: https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788970150/9781788970150.xml
    - Open-access chapters: https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/59799

    Host: Ashley Lauren Bamford-Kaemmereit

  • Estonian govt CIO Siim Sikkut and Gerhard Hammerschmid discuss Estonia’s digital transformation.

    Siim Sikkut, the Republic of Estonia's Chief Information Officer and Gerhard Hammerschmid, Professor of Public and Financial Management and Director of the Hertie School Centre for Digital Governance discussed on 11 March what lessons Germany and other countries might draw from Estonia's digital transformation of its public administration. Their discussion is available as a podcast.
    After a series of extensive reforms over the last decade, Estonia has become one of the most advanced digital societies in the world. Recently, Estonia also presented its vision of how public services should work digitally in the age of artificial intelligence.
    Sikkut and Hammerschmid discussed the implementation of measures such as e-taxes and i-voting and the possibility that Estonia could act as a model or be a partner for other countries that want to become more efficient in providing public services to citizens.
    The event was hosted by the Centre for Digital Governance and the TROPICO research project. It is part of the "Future of Government" event series. The series addresses transformative trends challenging governments around the globe and explores possible responses to bolster state capacity and legitimacy in ever more turbulent political environments.

    Siim Sikkut is the Government CIO of Estonia, also titled as Deputy Secretary General for IT and Telecom at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications since March 2017. His role is to set the strategy and policies, to launch and steer strategic initiatives and regulation in areas of digital government and cybersecurity in Estonia. Siim is one of the founders of Estonia’s groundbreaking e-Residency programme. He was nominated as one of world’s TOP20 most influential people in digital government by Apolitical in 2018 and 2019. Siim is also the chair of OECD Working Party of Senior Digital Government Officials.

    Gerhard Hammerschmid is Professor of Public and Financial Management and Director of the Centre for Digital Governance at the Hertie School. His research focuses on public management reform, comparative public administration, public sector performance management and personnel management. He is a partner of the EU-funded research project TROPICO on public sector innovation and digital government transformation.