In the early teens of the 21st century, two of the European Union's (EU) member states engaged in... more In the early teens of the 21st century, two of the European Union's (EU) member states engaged in an epic year-long clash over money. Leading politicians in Germany and Greece disputed the future of the Greek economy. Headlines in German newspapers castigated the recklessly spending Greeks, whereas headlines in Greek newspapers admonished the relentlessly austere Germans. During this period of tension, one of the authors of this chapter worked with the Italian Institute of International Affairs (IAI) in Rome, and the other one oversaw the Europe program at Stiftung Mercator, a private foundation advancing Europe's cohesion at home and its role in the world. In the fall of 2013, the team convened a meeting to probe the demand for a new kind of program, a partly self-managed platform for exchange and projects among national members of parliament (MPs) in different EU countries. In 2014, the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS) was approached and invited to lead a project consortium of half-a-dozen think tanks-some with informal ties to parties, most of them independent-from different countries to develop and refine the "Mercator European Dialogue," since 2021 called "Open European Dialogue." The consortium set out to identify the most urgent and transformative arenas of engagement in the detrimental North-South divide within the EU-embodied in the clash between Greece and Germany, but extending to many other contexts as well. The German-Greek financial dispute suggested to some observers that national parliaments in the EU were a promising yet overlooked arena to harness collective intelligence on Europe-wide policies. After all, members of the German Bundestag had to decide about billions of taxpayers' money to bail out a foreign country, while their Greek counterparts found themselves dependent and ostensibly devoid of sovereign choices.
Wie findet die EU aus dem Krisenmodus zurück in den Gestaltungsmodus? Die Probleme der vergangene... more Wie findet die EU aus dem Krisenmodus zurück in den Gestaltungsmodus? Die Probleme der vergangenen Jahre haben die Europäer gespalten und Euroskeptizismus wachsen lassen. Andererseits besteht der Wunsch nach gemeinsamen Lösungen fort. Diese Grundhaltung war auch bei dem internationalen Seminar für Europa-Experten aus Politik, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft greifbar, zu dem eine Gruppe führender Think-Tanks, darunter die DGAP, nach Berlin eingeladen hatte. Ein ausführlicher Bericht liegt nun vor
Partners The Initiating Consortium The Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) was founded in 1965 o... more Partners The Initiating Consortium The Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) was founded in 1965 on the initiative of Altiero Spinelli, its first director. A nonprofit organization, the IAI is funded by individual and corporate members, public and private organizations, major international foundations, and by a standing grant from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Institute's main objective is to promote an understanding of the problems of international politics through studies, research, meetings and publications , with the aim of increasing the opportunities of all countries to move in the direction of supranational organization, democratic freedom and social justice. Stiftung Mercator is one of Germany's largest foundations. It initiates and funds projects that promote better educational opportunities in schools and universities. In the spirit of Gerhard Mercator, it supports initiatives that embody the idea of open-mindedness and tolerance through intercultural...
Large scale societal and political changes can be enabled via open and collaborative innovation p... more Large scale societal and political changes can be enabled via open and collaborative innovation processes in which diverse interests collaborate to co-create the future. These social learning processes do not claim to know about the future but instead call for learning with alternative futures to become more agile and adaptive, overcome inertia and create movement. We illustrate this process of large scale systems transition through reference to a specific case study on the futures of Europe. The initiative combines a variety of futures methods-scenarios, visioning and value creation modeling-to support an open-ended process of collaborative innovation and empower the co-creation of new potentialities. Learning developed in this multi-stakeholder, multi-method transformational foresight initiative is relevant to a wide range of scholars and practitioners in different fields with interests in collabrative strategy, complex systems redesign, transition management. Key lessons include ...
In the early teens of the 21st century, two of the European Union's (EU) member states engaged in... more In the early teens of the 21st century, two of the European Union's (EU) member states engaged in an epic year-long clash over money. Leading politicians in Germany and Greece disputed the future of the Greek economy. Headlines in German newspapers castigated the recklessly spending Greeks, whereas headlines in Greek newspapers admonished the relentlessly austere Germans. During this period of tension, one of the authors of this chapter worked with the Italian Institute of International Affairs (IAI) in Rome, and the other one oversaw the Europe program at Stiftung Mercator, a private foundation advancing Europe's cohesion at home and its role in the world. In the fall of 2013, the team convened a meeting to probe the demand for a new kind of program, a partly self-managed platform for exchange and projects among national members of parliament (MPs) in different EU countries. In 2014, the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMFUS) was approached and invited to lead a project consortium of half-a-dozen think tanks-some with informal ties to parties, most of them independent-from different countries to develop and refine the "Mercator European Dialogue," since 2021 called "Open European Dialogue." The consortium set out to identify the most urgent and transformative arenas of engagement in the detrimental North-South divide within the EU-embodied in the clash between Greece and Germany, but extending to many other contexts as well. The German-Greek financial dispute suggested to some observers that national parliaments in the EU were a promising yet overlooked arena to harness collective intelligence on Europe-wide policies. After all, members of the German Bundestag had to decide about billions of taxpayers' money to bail out a foreign country, while their Greek counterparts found themselves dependent and ostensibly devoid of sovereign choices.
Wie findet die EU aus dem Krisenmodus zurück in den Gestaltungsmodus? Die Probleme der vergangene... more Wie findet die EU aus dem Krisenmodus zurück in den Gestaltungsmodus? Die Probleme der vergangenen Jahre haben die Europäer gespalten und Euroskeptizismus wachsen lassen. Andererseits besteht der Wunsch nach gemeinsamen Lösungen fort. Diese Grundhaltung war auch bei dem internationalen Seminar für Europa-Experten aus Politik, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft greifbar, zu dem eine Gruppe führender Think-Tanks, darunter die DGAP, nach Berlin eingeladen hatte. Ein ausführlicher Bericht liegt nun vor
Partners The Initiating Consortium The Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) was founded in 1965 o... more Partners The Initiating Consortium The Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) was founded in 1965 on the initiative of Altiero Spinelli, its first director. A nonprofit organization, the IAI is funded by individual and corporate members, public and private organizations, major international foundations, and by a standing grant from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Institute's main objective is to promote an understanding of the problems of international politics through studies, research, meetings and publications , with the aim of increasing the opportunities of all countries to move in the direction of supranational organization, democratic freedom and social justice. Stiftung Mercator is one of Germany's largest foundations. It initiates and funds projects that promote better educational opportunities in schools and universities. In the spirit of Gerhard Mercator, it supports initiatives that embody the idea of open-mindedness and tolerance through intercultural...
Large scale societal and political changes can be enabled via open and collaborative innovation p... more Large scale societal and political changes can be enabled via open and collaborative innovation processes in which diverse interests collaborate to co-create the future. These social learning processes do not claim to know about the future but instead call for learning with alternative futures to become more agile and adaptive, overcome inertia and create movement. We illustrate this process of large scale systems transition through reference to a specific case study on the futures of Europe. The initiative combines a variety of futures methods-scenarios, visioning and value creation modeling-to support an open-ended process of collaborative innovation and empower the co-creation of new potentialities. Learning developed in this multi-stakeholder, multi-method transformational foresight initiative is relevant to a wide range of scholars and practitioners in different fields with interests in collabrative strategy, complex systems redesign, transition management. Key lessons include ...
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