Ludger Kühnhardt is Director at the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI) and Professor of Political Science at the University of Bonn. He has been visiting professor at distinguished universities around the world, among them Stanford University, St.Antony's College (Oxford), Dartmouth College, Cape Town University, Canterbury University (Christchurch) Tongji University (Shanghai), College of Europe; he lectures regularly at the Catholic University Milan, the Diplomatic Academy Vienna and the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies Malta. Kühnhardt has served as speech writer for German President Richard von Weizsäcker and as advisor for the President of the European Parliament, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe and the Parliament of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He is member of the Governing Board of the European Humanities University, member of the Academic Board of the West Africa Institute (WAI) and a Global Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington D.C. Kühnhardt is author of twenty-six books and co-author and editor of another 16 books.