Alexander Görlach

Alexander Görlach is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, and a visiting scholar to the philosophy department of NYU. Prior to these he held various visiting appointments as scholar and fellow at Harvard University in the US, and as a visiting fellow at Cambridge University in the UK. He was also until recently a research associate at the Internet Institute of Oxford University and is a member of the European Academic of Arts and Sciences in Salzburg, Austria.

Alex' work focuses on democratic theory, politics and religion, democracy and technology, theories of pluralism, secularism and cosmopolitanism. In the academic year 2017-18 he was a visiting scholar to both, National Taiwan University in Taipei and City University Hong Kong where he worked on the rise of autocratic China and its implications for the democracies in East Asia. His latest book “Code Red: Why China’s aggressive policies in the Pacific will lead into global War” was also translated into Mandarin and published in Taiwan in the fall of 2022. “Focus Hongkong: Why the Future of the Free World will be decided in Hong Kong” (2020) looks into the crack down of the CCP on democracy in the formerly semiautonomous city (both Hoffmann & Campe). Brookings Press published his book “Homo Empathicus: On Scapegoats, Populists & Racing Democracy” in 2021, the same year German publisher Reclam released his very short introduction into democracy. 

He started teaching at Leuphana University in Lüneburg und Freie Universität Berlin in 2010, and subsequently expanded his teaching scope to the University of Vienna and IE University in Madrid. His courses include: The future of democracy, politics and religion, the role of media in democracy, theories of secularism, pluralism and cosmopolitanism. 

Alex is the founder of the debate magazine The European, which he also ran as its editor-in-chief from 2009 to 2015. He is an op-ed contributor and columnist, for the New York Times and Neue Zürcher Zeitung, amongst others. He frequently comments on timely issues on TV and radio. 

(Photo Credit: Hong Kiu Cheng)