Joschka Fisher to assume one-year post
By: Hillary Parker
Germany’s foreign minister from 1998 to 2005 Green Party member Joschka Fischer will bring his international perspective to Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs when he assumes a one-year lecturer appointment as the Frederick H. Schultz Class of 1951 Professor of International Economic Policy in September.
Mr. Fischer was selected for his ability to supplement the school’s European studies offerings and his expertise on security issues, Woodrow Wilson School Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote in an e-mail from Europe, citing Mr. Fischer’s experiences with the deployment of German forces to Kosovo.
"Fischer will be able to provide unique insights into the post-Cold War, pre-Sept. 11 world, a time of raging ethnic conflict in many parts of the world, particularly the former Yugoslavia, when attitudes toward both the sources of global insecurity and humanitarian intervention were changing quickly," she said. "He will also be able to engage our students on the sources and symptoms of anti-Americanism in Europe; although he was part of the German government that disagreed with the U.S. on Iraq, he helped convince the German parliament to support the U.S. on Kosovo and indeed to send troops to Kosovo. Finally, he has firsthand experience of changing currents in transatlantic relations more generally and is a strong believer in U.S.-E.U. cooperation on a range of global issues."
Along with Woodrow Wilson School lecturer Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, the director of the school’s Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, Mr. Fischer will teach "International Crisis Diplomacy" to undergraduate students in the fall. During the spring, he will collaborate with Diplomat-in-Residence Ambassador Robert Hutchings and Andrew Moravcsik, professor of politics, to offer a graduate seminar on international relations and the transatlantic alliance.
"America and Europe can master the challenges of the 21st century, but only if we act together," Mr. Fischer told audiences in 2003 during an address given at the Woodrow Wilson School.
A popular politician in Germany, Mr. Fischer is known for his colorful past including a taxi-driving career in the late 1970s and early 1980s and radical political views and activities. Five times married and the author of a German best-selling book on his own marked weight loss and personal transformation "Mein langer Lauf zu mir selbst" ("My Long Path to Myself") Mr. Fischer’s personal life has received widespread public attention in Germany.
The Woodrow Wilson School has already received "a range of views" on Mr. Fischer’s appointment, according to Dean Slaughter. "It is clear already that Joschka Fischer will be at the center of lively debates on and off campus, which we welcome," she said.
While at the university, Mr. Fischer will also serve as a fellow at Princeton’s European Union Program and a senior fellow at the Liechtenstein Institute. Concurrent with his time at Princeton, Mr. Fischer will work with the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York City-based think tank.