United States

On Monday night, a surprise draft ruling by conservative Justice Samuel Alito was released in the U.S. indicating that a majority on the Supreme Court wants to reverse the legalization of abortions. Ella Müller, director of the Democracy Program at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Washington, DC, puts this impending caesura and the political developments behind it in context.    

Our Washington office’s focus is on three major international issues: transatlantic security policy, global protection of the environment and climate, and economic globalisation with its repercussions around the world.

A different policy mix of climate protection in the U.S. and EU creates tensions that make a close alliance very difficult. The deep political divide in the U.S. also raises doubts about the durability of climate policy cooperation.

The twentieth anniversary of 9/11 and the United States’ disastrous pullout from Afghanistan has prompted a reckoning. But it’s not a new one.

Looking back, now with Information Age lenses, 9/11’s aftermath lessons are full of virtues, yet to be capitalized.

Interview with Rahmatullah Amiri on the withdrawal of international troops from Afghanistan and the increasing challenges for the peace process and civil society.

With the two-day Biden leaders summit on climate attended by 40 countries, the United States has returned to the international stage of climate diplomacy. Whether the increased ambition of new climate action pledges via video made by several core countries can be implemented in a binding manner, however, remains an open question.

In the United States, the pandemic made obvious what has long been a problem – students without access to the internet or computing devices at home are at a serious disadvantage.

Schools made a quick pivot to online teaching in spring 2020 as the pandemic sent kids home to learn. But educators soon faced a host of data sharing issues, as classrooms moved to platforms neither designed for education nor in compliance with privacy laws.