Alexander’s research seeks to answer a fundamental question: what is the future of democracy and governance in an increasingly amorphous and globalized world? For more than two decades, he has investigated how global trends–including global governance, resources scarcity, climate change, crisis and conflict prevention, migration and refugees, and urbanization will shape our shared future.
Together with his 250-person team at adelphi, Alexander works to ensure that global transformations are both environmentally sustainable and socially just. Founded in 2001, the think-and-do tank adelphi operates at the interface of environment, development policy, and foreign policy. adelphi’s approach is based on the belief that the boundaries between different disciplines cloud our perspective, and that successfully navigating the global transformation will require cross-disciplinary creativity and impact. Over the last 25 years, adelphi has produced several hundred projects for international customers, institutions and networks. Alexander helped to set-up think tanks, social start-ups and partnerships around the globe.
In Fall 2015, Alexander co-founded the Open Society Initiative, which organized over 1.000 debates and campaigns calling for a pluralistic, democratic majority in the year leading up to the 2016 German Bundestag elections.
Alexander is the author of numerous essays and monographs on politics and social policy, including Die offene Gesellschaft und ihre Freunde („The open society and its friends“), co-authored with Harald Welzer and André Wilkens (S. Fischer, 2016); and The Rise of Green Economies, with Dennis Tänzler and Elsa Semmling (oekom, 2017).
After a degree in Political Science, Law and Journalism in Berlin, Alexander worked as a Fellow at the Research Center for Environmental Policy at the Free University of Berlin from 1991 to 1992. In 1993 he founded the Ecologic Institute for International and European Environmental Policy, which he led until 2001, and worked as Program Advisor to the German Foundation for International Development (1993-1994). Between 1997 and 1999, he advised the governments of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary during their preparations for accession to the European Union.
Alexander enjoys time with his family, fine arts, cooking and long coastal bike rides.