In 1997, German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel (1992–1998) dedicated a piece of the Berlin Wall to JHU SAIS. This gift from the Senate of Berlin was a tribute to the success of the German-American partnership—a symbol of the peaceful end of the Cold War. Only four years earlier, the Newseum in Washington, D.C., acquired eight 12-foot-high segments of the Berlin Wall, along with the three-story East German guard tower that stood near Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin’s best-known east-west crossing. These elements formed the Berlin Wall exhibit, an immersive section of the museum designed to share how the news helped topple a closed society. Today, there are only 10 locations in Washington, D.C., with pieces of the Berlin Wall. The school’s piece of the wall (pictured here) sits in the courtyard in front of the Nitze Building: a formidable reminder of war, peace, policy, and partnership. Just across town, the Newseum’s pieces of the wall remind visitors of the struggles worldwide in the fight to preserve freedom of expression. Even though the Newseum will close its doors this year, its underlying mission matches well with that of the school’s, reminding us that the past helps to shape the future world order, and that we’re all more alike than different.