Dear friends of Regensburg IP,
i would like to combine my warmest Christmas greetings with a few tips for (self-)gifts:
The best books I read or listened to this year were:
- Andrew Roberts: Churchill, 2019 (best biography of the greatest European statesman of the 20th century)
- Hanno Sauer: Moral, 2023 (brilliant analysis of good and evil from the perspective of evolutionary psychology)
- Edward Luce: Zbig, 2025 (about Jimmy Carter's security adviser and one of the smartest foreign policy thinkers of the past 70 years)
- Max Boot: Reagan, 2021 (best biography of the last great president of the USA in the 1980s, after which nothing good came along)
- Barbara Kingsolver: Demon Copperfield, 2019 (fiction, excellent insight into the US underclass, brilliantly written, page-turner)
The best series I watched this year:
- Say Nothing (Disney) about the IRA terror in Northern Ireland and the UK in the 1980s
- Assassination in Belgrade (arte) about the murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Dindic in 2003
- Cum Ex (ZDF) about the biggest investment scandal in European history with the stunning Lisa Wagner as the prosecutor
- Wolf Hall 2 (arte) about the relationship between Henry V and Thomas Cromwell, in which one loses his head (watch Wolf Hall 1 beforehand)
Of course, every proper household should have a subscription to the Economist (of course, you can't live without it) and the New Yorker (currently available for €1 a week on their website). If you're incomprehensibly hesitant, watch the fabulous Netflix documentary on the 100th anniversary of the New Yorker and you'll be hooked ...
2026 we offer you:
13.1. 7-8.30 p.m. Bierling lecture "Trump 2.0: Consequences for Europe and Germany", VHS Regensburg am Haidplatz
14.1. 7-8 p.m. "Focus on security policy" with Dr Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann and myself at ZOOM (cooperation event with the Naumann/Dehler Foundation)
20.1. 4-6 p.m., H24, University of Regensburg, panel discussion with Prof. Dr Gerlinde Groitl, Prof. Dr Volker Depkat and myself on "One year of Trump in the White House: America's democracy at an end?" (event organised in cooperation with the Naumann/Dehler Foundation)
23.1. 8pm-10pm, Erlangen, Rupprecht book shop, Bierling in conversation with Robin Alexander about his new book "Letzte Chance" (Last Chance)
13./14.2. Munich Security Conference, I will be commenting live for two days on BR24 and partly on Phoenix
Best regards and many gifts from Stephan Bierling
P.S. Here is the link to my BR24 television interview on the new US National Security Strategy (from 1:40): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeQxn1rquYI (external link, opens in a new window)