With the 30 anniversary of German reunification in October and current US/EU relations strained, The Columbia University Club of New York and Columbia Alumni Association of Germany invite you to a joint virtual event with US and Germany diplomats to discuss: Is the US’s Global Presence Diminishing? Views from the US and Germany.

Come join us at this special joint event on September 10 at 6:30pm German time / 12:30pm NY time. Format: Zoom event. Registration required. A link and password will be forwarded before the event.

Moderator:

Professor Horst Fischer (Columbia SIPA) has been teaching the international humanitarian law course at SIPA since 2002 as well as international law. He is involved in setting up the NOHA programme and the exchange with the Venice Human Rights Center (EIUC), Italy. Professor Fischer is also engaged in international cooperation of SMEs to work in developing and emerging economies. His focus area is international law, human rights, European Union policies and security policy.

Speakers:

J. Patrick Truhn (LS ’77, GSAS ’78) is a retired U.S. diplomat who has lived in Berlin for the past seven years. He joined the State Department in 1984, and over the next three decades served as: Vice Consul in Seoul and Milan, Consul in Casablanca, Counselor in Sofia, Consul General in Leipzig, First Secretary in Canberra, Counselor in Jakarta, Consul General in Naples, and Minister-Counselor in Paris. In Washington, DC he was a member of Secretary Powell’s Diplomatic Readiness Task Force and later Director of the Office of Rightsizing the U.S. Government Overseas Presence. He is the recipient of numerous State Department awards. A native of St. Paul, Minnesota, Mr. Truhn received a bachelor’s degree, with honors, magna cum laude, in French Civilization from Brown University in 1976; an M.S. in Library Service from Columbia in 1977; an M.A. In French and Romance Philology, also from Columbia, in 1978; and an M.S. in National Security Strategy from the National War College in 1996. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he was Assistant Librarian of the American University in Paris from 1979-84. He has been Leader of the Columbia Club of Berlin since 2019.

Raimund Grafe is Director of the Representation of the Free State of Thuringia to the German Federation. In this capacity he is also his state’s representative on the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees of the Bundesrat, Germany’s second chamber, the Federal Council. Previously, Mr. Grafe was a Berlin-based official for the Free State of Saxony. From 2004-2008, he served as Chief of Staff of Saxony’s Minister of Economics and Labor. From 1997-2004 he was Chief of Staff of the SPD Parliamentary Group in the Saxony State Legislature and Desk Officer for European Affairs. Between 1990 and 1997 he worked as a Political Specialist at the American Consulate General in Leipzig. In 1988/89 he was a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Raimund Grafe grew up in India from 1961 to 1975. After graduating from Kodaikanal International School in South India, he returned to Germany, where he studied Political Science and Economics at the University of Munich and Sciences Po in Paris.