Professional Affiliation

Director, Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI), Germany

Expert Bio

Ludger Kühnhardt (1958) is Director at the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI) at Bonn University and Professor of Political Science at Bonn University, Germany. He worked as journalist, served as speechwriter for German Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker, was Professor of Political Science at Freiburg University and visiting professor at prestigious universities around the world.

Twice, he was appointed a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. Kühnhardt has intensive political and academic consultancy experience in Europe, Asia and Africa. In 2004 he was awarded the European Science Prize of the European Cultural Foundation.



His recent publications include: European Union – The Second Founding: The Changing Rationale of European Integration, Baden-Baden 2008(2nd.ed. 2010); Region-Building: The Global Proliferation of Regional Integration, New York/Oxford 2010 (two volumes); Africa Consensus: New Interests, initiatives and partners (Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014).

Wilson Center Project

"The United States and Europe: Towards A Global Agenda"

Previous Terms

Feb 2011- Dec 2015, Public Policy Scholar "The U.S., Europe, and China on the African Continent: A New Scramble for Africa?"