This conversation with the American Council on Germany (ACG) and 1014 welcomed Senior Director at National Endowment for Democracy John Glenn and Council on Foreign Relations Fellow Dr. Lianna Fix to explore the key global trends emerging from the 2024 “Super Election Year.” How is democracy around the globe holding up against the rising tide of political polarization, global authoritarianism, disinformation campaigns, and new forms of technology?
In collaboration with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung New York Office
Biographies
John K. Glenn is senior director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies, where he oversees and develops the Forum’s cross-cutting analytic and research activity in areas including transnational kleptocracy, the integrity of the information space, emerging technology, and modern authoritarian influence. Glenn has over 20 years of international experience in the nonprofit, foundation, and academic sectors, having previously served as policy director at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, director of foreign policy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and executive director of the Council for European Studies.
He serves as adjunct faculty at the Elliott School for International Relations at George Washington University where he teaches graduate seminars on transatlantic relations, having previously taught at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is also an HFX Fellow on the Agenda Working Group for the Halifax International Security Forum.
Glenn holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and Ph.D. and A.M. from Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the European University Institute in Florence and Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. He is the author of numerous articles, reports, and books on international affairs and democratic development, including Framing Democracy (Stanford University Press) and The Power and Limits of NGOs (Columbia University Press, co-edited with Sarah Mendelson).
Dr. Liana Fix is a fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). She is a historian and political scientist, with expertise in German and European foreign and security policy, European security, transatlantic relations, Russia, Eastern Europe, and European China policy. Dr. Fix is also the author of A New German Power? Germany’s Role in European Russia Policy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). She is an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University in the Center for German and European Studies and the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies.
Prior to joining CFR, Dr. Fix was program director for international affairs at Körber-Stiftung in Berlin. She was also a resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, DC, and a DAAD/AICGS fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies. From 2018 to 2019, she was a fellow for global governance futures at the Robert Bosch Foundation Multilateral Dialogues. From 2014 to 2016, Dr. Fix was a doctoral fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs and associate fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. From 2012 to 2013, Dr. Fix worked as a Mercator fellow for international affairs at the German Federal Foreign Office, the EU Delegation in Tbilisi, and the Carnegie Moscow Center.
Dr. Fix received her MSc in theory and history of international relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science and her PhD in political science from the Justus Liebig University Giessen. She is a member of the Aspen Rising Leaders, the BMW Responsible Leaders Network, and of Women in International Security.