Berlin/Washington, June 8, 2018. Joint press release by Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and German Academic Exchange Service

DAAD and Johns Hopkins SAIS Announce Kristina Spohr as Inaugural Helmut Schmidt Professor

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Inaugural Helmut Schmidt Professor and Six Postdoctoral Fellows, Program on “The United States, Europe, and World Order”

The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) are pleased to announce that Professor Kristina Spohr will join the school for the 2018-2019 academic year as the inaugural Helmut Schmidt Distinguished Professor in the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs. This new professorship commemorates the long and deep friendship between Dr. Kissinger and Chancellor Schmidt, and is part of a multi-year program to enhance research on transatlantic relations at Johns Hopkins SAIS funded by the DAAD with generous support by the German Federal Foreign Office.
 
On this occasion, the Minister of State for international cultural policy at the German Federal Foreign Office, Michelle Müntefering, stated: “Germany and the United States of America are bound together by long-standing ties of friendship. At the same time, we need to continue learning more about each other in order to avoid misunderstandings, foster our friendship, and address common global challenges. Academic leadership plays a significant role in this endeavor.”
 
“The German Federal Foreign Office is thrilled to support the establishment of the Helmut Schmidt Distinguished Professor in the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs. The professorship adds an important German-U.S. transatlantic scientific perspective on how to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges”, Müntefering said. “We are looking forward to the research conducted by the professorship. In combination with the Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades, the German Academy in New York, and a large public diplomacy campaign starting in October 2018, the Helmut-Schmidt professorship is part of a larger effort by the German Federal Foreign Office, together with its partners, to stay actively engaged in a broad transatlantic dialogue.”
 
Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Kissinger Center Francis J. Gavin said, “We are delighted to welcome Professor Kristina Spohr as the inaugural Helmut Schmidt Professor. She is an acclaimed scholar of transatlantic relations and historically informed strategy and statecraft.”
 
Professor Margret Wintermantel, President of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), said transatlantic relations – as well as global cooperation to address the challenges facing the world – has always been at the heart of DAAD’s work.
 
“Today it is more relevant than ever to ensure a close partnership between the United States and Germany within a European context”, Wintermantel said. “We are confident that the Helmut Schmidt Professorship in combination with the young researchers can contribute to addressing these issues and to deepening U.S.-German relations. We are convinced that the Kissinger Center at Johns Hopkins SAIS is the ideal partner to realize these aspirations.”
 
Professor Spohr is currently associate professor at the London School of Economics and specializes in the international history of Germany since 1945, and the theory and practice of contemporary history. “I am excited at the prospect of working in such a renowned program and engaging with scholars and diplomats in the Washington community”, she said.
 
Professor Spohr is author or editor of five books, including The Global Chancellor: Helmut Schmidt and the Reshaping of the International Order (Oxford University Press, 2016) – also in extended German edition Der Weltkanzler (WBG/Theiss, 2016); Transcending the Cold War: Summits, Statecraft, and the Dissolution of Bipolarity in Europe, 1970-1990 (Oxford University Press, 2016); and Germany and the Baltic problem after the Cold War: The Development of a New Ostpolitik, 1989-2000 (Routledge, 2004).
 
She is currently completing a book on the global exit from the Cold War over the period 1989-1992, which is scheduled to be released in 2019. Professor Spohr studied at the University of East Anglia, Sciences Po Paris, and Cambridge University where she gained her PhD in History and was then a post-doctoral fellow. She also worked for a year as a Research Fellow in the Secretary General’s Private Office at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
 
Professor Spohr and Johns Hopkins SAIS Professor Daniel Hamilton will lead a research group comprising six postdoctoral fellows from the United States and Europe that will be based at the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS. The 2018-2019 Fellows will conduct research on the theme “The United States, Europe, and World Order.” The Fellows will be announced on July 1, 2018.
 
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About Johns Hopkins SAIS
A division of Johns Hopkins University, the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) is a global institution that offers students an international perspective on today’s critical issues. For nearly 75 years, Johns Hopkins SAIS has produced great leaders, thinkers, and practitioners of international relations. Public leaders and private sector executives alike seek the counsel of the faculty, whose ideas and research inform and shape policy. Johns Hopkins SAIS offers a global perspective across three campus locations: Bologna, Italy; Nanjing, China; and Washington, D.C. The school’s interdisciplinary curriculum is strongly rooted in the study of international economics, international relations, and regional studies, preparing students to address multifaceted challenges in the world today.
  
About the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs
Established in 2016, the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS hosts a distinguished faculty working to advance research in historically-informed strategy and statecraft.
 
About the Foreign Policy Institute 
The Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS was established in 1980 to unite the worlds of scholarship and policy in the search for realistic answers to international issues facing the United States and the world. It seeks to advance practically oriented research and discussion about foreign policy.
 
About the German Academic Exchange Service
Since its founding in 1925, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has awarded funding to more than 2 million students and scholars in Germany and abroad. DAAD is a registered-members’ association made up of German institutions of higher education and student bodies whose activities go far beyond simply awarding grants and scholarships. DAAD supports the internationalization of German universities, promotes German Studies and the German language abroad, provides developing countries with best practices in establishing universities and advises decision makers in the area of cultural, educational and developmental policy. Today, DAAD is one of the most important funding organizations worldwide for the international exchange of students and researchers.