Federalism in Crisis: U.S. and German Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

UNC TransAtlantic Masters Program alum Brandon Bohrn will discuss his first solo publication for the Bertelsmann Foundation, Federalism in Crisis: U.S. and German Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic. The publication elucidates the key cultural, structural, institutional, and political characteristics of the U.S and German federal systems, and explores how they have impacted the interplay among federal, state, and local actors during the pandemic. In essence, this publication provides readers with a better understanding of how the U.S. and Germany, through their different forms of federalism, have confronted this once-in-a-century public health crisis.

RSVP to tam@unc.edu for Zoom information.

Brandon Bohrn joined the Bertelsmann Foundation in January 2020 as Manager of Transatlantic Relations. Specifically, he manages the German-American relations project. Before joining Bertelsmann, Brandon served as an intern with the U.S. Embassy Berlin, U.S. Consulate Düsseldorf, and U.S. Senate. He also participated in the Fulbright program as an English teaching assistant in Wanne-Eickel, Germany. Brandon completed the TransAtlantic Masters Program (TAM) in political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As part of the program, he spent one year as a DAAD scholar at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Brandon is also a graduate of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina. He speaks German and some Turkish.