Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook

2026: That’s 250 years of American democracy. As the United States celebrates a quarter of a millennium as a constitutional state, President Trump is profoundly changing the country’s political course. Transatlantic political expert Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook shows how American democracy is coming under increasing pressure. Legal expansions of executive power and the intimidation of political opponents are proving to be a political strategy. Similar dynamics can also be observed in Europe. Is the assumption that liberal democracies are inherently stable deceptive? What lessons can be learned from the USA for Europe?

Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook is a German-American political scientist. She headed the Future of Diplomacy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School, was Director of the German Council on Foreign Relations and now works for the Bertelsmann Stiftung on Europe’s future.

In the series Schlaglicht USA

Info on the event series:
Democracy under pressure
250 years of American democracy – and at the same time a political change of course with global consequences: Schlaglicht USA analyzes how the political balance of power is shifting in President Trump’s second term and what security and economic policy consequences “America First” has for transatlantic relations In this series, influential voices from politics, science, law and culture discuss what freedom, justice and democracy mean in the 21st century.