{"id":15219,"date":"2026-09-29T10:25:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/?post_type=kreisky_event&#038;p=15219"},"modified":"2026-09-29T10:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T10:25:36","slug":"the-american-wake-up-call","status":"publish","type":"kreisky_event","link":"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/veranstaltung\/der-amerikanische-weckruf","title":{"rendered":"THE AMERICAN WAKE-UP CALL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>250 years of US democracy \u2013 and one year of the Trump presidency, which is systematically dismantling it<\/strong><br><strong><em>A guide to strengthening democracy<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2026 \u2013 250 years of American democracy. And Donald Trump\u2019s second year back in power: a historic anniversary meets a historic turning point. Whilst the United States celebrates a quarter of a millennium as a constitutional state, President Trump continues his authoritarian overhaul \u2013 with an agenda that is more far-reaching, strategic and determined than ever before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In her first book, the highly sought-after transatlantic political expert Cathryn Cl\u00fcver Ashbrook demonstrates how American democracy is being deliberately eroded: through the systematic weakening of the separation of powers, ideological control of education and the media, the legal reinterpretation of powers, and the deliberate intimidation of political opponents. What many dismissed as chaos or isolated incidents was, in truth, part of a long-term strategy \u2013 and that is precisely what we failed to recognise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Cl\u00fcver Ashbrook takes it a step further: she shows how the same patterns are taking hold in Europe \u2013 including in Germany. The illusion that liberal democracies are automatically stable has blinded us to the vulnerabilities from within. It is precisely where institutions are weak, education systems are unprotected and public discourse is fragmented that authoritarian strategies take hold particularly easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This book is a political early-warning system. And a handbook on democratic self-defence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It identifies the weaknesses that populists systematically exploit. It shows what lessons we must learn from the American experience. And it makes it clear what needs to be done now \u2013 at the political, legal and societal levels. So that we do not look back in a few years\u2019 time and, precisely because of our own historical responsibility, have to say: we, too, could have known better.<strong><br><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Cathryn Cl\u00fcver Ashbrook<\/strong> She is a German-American political scientist and one of the most prominent transatlantic voices of our time: a frequent guest on television (ARD, ZDF, CNN, BBC) and a sought-after commentator in prestigious publications such as the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post. *The American Wake-up Call* is her first book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Moderation<br><strong>Helfried Carl,<\/strong> Austrian diplomat; Austrian Ambassador to Slovakia from 2014 to 2019 and former head of office to Barbara Prammer, President of the National Council; since 2019, a partner at the Innovation in Politics Institute in Vienna, which he co-founded, and founder of the European Capital of Democracy initiative. Carl is a board member of the Bruno Kreisky Forum and the Austrian Society for European Policy (\u00d6GFE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brandstaetterverlag.com\/buch\/der-amerikanische-weckruf\/\">Cathryn Cl\u00fcver Asbrooke<\/a><br>The American wake-up call.<br>Brandst\u00e4tter Verlag, 2026, \u20ac22.00<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>250 Jahre US-Demokratie \u2013 und ein Jahr Trump-Pr\u00e4sidentschaft, die sie systematisch demontiertEine Handlungsanleitung f\u00fcr die St\u00e4rkung der Demokratie 2026 \u2013 250 Jahre amerikanische Demokratie. Und Donald Trumps zweites Jahr zur\u00fcck an der Macht: Ein historisches Jubil\u00e4um trifft auf eine historische Z\u00e4sur. W\u00e4hrend die Vereinigten Staaten ein Vierteljahrtausend Verfassungsstaat feiern, setzt Pr\u00e4sident Trump seinen autorit\u00e4ren Umbau [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15220,"template":"","format":[29],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"schwerpunkt":[43],"class_list":["post-15219","kreisky_event","type-kreisky_event","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","schwerpunkt-internationale-politik-europa-und-sicherheit","format-podiumsdiskussion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>DER AMERIKANISCHE WECKRUF - Kreisky Forum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kreisky-forum.org\/en\/event\/the-american-wake-up-call\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DER AMERIKANISCHE WECKRUF - Kreisky Forum\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"250 Jahre US-Demokratie \u2013 und ein Jahr Trump-Pr\u00e4sidentschaft, die sie systematisch demontiertEine Handlungsanleitung f\u00fcr die St\u00e4rkung der Demokratie 2026 \u2013 250 Jahre amerikanische Demokratie. Und Donald Trumps zweites Jahr zur\u00fcck an der Macht: Ein historisches Jubil\u00e4um trifft auf eine historische Z\u00e4sur. 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