You are cordially invited to a lecture on the topic of
Europe’s Hypocrisy and the Migrant Crisis
with
Benjamin Fricke
IWP Class of 2013
Thursday, October 22
4:30 PM
The Institute of World Politics
1521 16th Street NW
Washington, D.C.
Parking map
This event is part of a series on the Intermarium sponsored by the Kosciuszko Chair of Polish Studies.
This presentation will focus on EU internal economic, financial and ideological difficulties and their impact on security and cooperation. It will address what role the EU assumes in this current crisis and what the causes are for the unregulated and unchecked streams of refugees coming to Europe and Germany in particular.
Mr. Fricke will focus on political developments in Germany and contextualize attitudes towards immigration in a historic context. He will take a look at the PEGIDA movement in Germany. A divide between post-communist and post-1968 socialization is becoming increasingly apparent in Germany and the European continent as a whole. Mr. Fricke will argue that it is a failed geopolitical, economic and security strategy internally and towards the Middle East and Africa which triggered this mass influx of migrants and the paralyzed inaction of European countries and the EU institutions.
The EU as an ideological post-nation state construct was not designed to cope with a crisis as it is currently occurring, and therefore the presentation will examine short- and medium-term solutions, effects on Europe, and political alternatives.
Benjamin Fricke received his M.A. in Statecraft and International Affairs from The Institute of World Politics in 2013, and he was one of the first participants in IWP’s Oxford study abroad program in 2012. Ben was awarded his B.A. in Political Science from Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH with two years of study at the University of Leipzig, Germany. He has done several high profile internships, such as at the U.S. Consulate General in Leipzig, Germany, the U.S. Senate, the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation in Washington, D.C., and the German diplomatic mission in New York. After graduation from IWP, Mr. Fricke returned to Europe in October 2013, where he spent a few months studying in France and started working for a private sector energy management and software company close to his hometown, Lutherstadt Wittenberg. His long term goal is to work in consulting and academia in North America.