The event format “Dinner Talk” is being offered in the framework of the DAAD Research Mar-keting providing a stage for high-profile representatives of the German research landscape in order to present a topic of high relevance. The event promoted the German research landscape and offered a platform for international cooperation by inviting prominent experts from Egypt alongside with a high-profile German keynote speaker.

This year’s Dinner Talk provided a stage for Prof. Hüther to present a pressing issue which has been the topic of his research as well as his book under the same title: “The Exhausted Globalisation”. By analysing contemporary global power dynamics and socio-political developments in different countries, he pointed at the factors causing the decline in economic growth which is noticeable in various societies in the current phase of globalisation.

© Watter al Bahry

Assessing the major crises of our time, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian aggressions against Ukraine or the crisis revolving around climate change, Prof. Hüther pointed at an insight which is common to all of them: The volatility of local markets towards crises due to the growing interconnectedness of economies worldwide. This fact is particularly observable in Germany at the moment, where the sudden absence of Russian gas, which made up the vast majority of gas imports until the onset of the Russian war against Ukraine, led to a gas scarcity. The efforts undertaken during the last decades to internationalise supply chains as a means to strengthen the stability and variety of local markets, have resulted in a contrary perception of internationalisation as a risk rather than as an insurance.
In his lecture, the speaker pleaded for a more mindful establishment of economic ties and more diversified trade relations for a more balanced economic system without the predominance of a single power.

During his stay in Cairo, the DAAD Regional Office Cairo provided Prof. Hüther with additional opportunities for networking with relevant stakeholders from the academic as well as the economic landscapes of Egypt. In a networking meeting, staff members from the Faculty of Economics and Political Science of Cairo University were invited to the premises of the DAAD Regional Office Cairo on 6 September 2022 to exchange with him on German-Egyptian collaboration.
Afterwards, the German Embassy in Cairo invited Prof. Hüther for another networking opportunity on its premises. Several representatives from major German companies were present to exchange with him on projects being realised in Egypt at the moment. With the impressions from these networking opportunities, Prof. Hüther left Egypt with a broader knowledge of as well as first-hand insights from the economic landscape of Egypt and with new contacts from his field.

The DAAD Regional Office is glad to have hosted Prof. Dr Michael Hüther during his stay in Cairo. His visit presented a great contribution towards the further development of the intercultural relations between Germany and Egypt and helped us to further locally promote and support the German research landscape.