A look back at some of the highlights from 2012:
Four Q&As with senior NATO representatives
Read and watch the opening statements, questions and answers from the past sessions:
- James Appathurai, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, on the partnerships and regional initiatives: Call for questions, video answers on global partnerships and the Arab Spring, on partnerships with Asia, on Central Asia and the Caucasus, and on the NATO mission.
- Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, Deputy Secretary General, on NATO's agenda after the Chicago Summit: Answers and opening video statement.
- Ambassador Grabar-Kitarović, Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, on Women, Peace and Security: Answers and opening video statement.
- Adrian Kendry, Senior Defense Economist, on security despite austerity: Opening video statement. (Answers expected next week)
"Your Ideas, Your NATO" Competition
The first half of 2012 was marked by the Policy Workshop Competition "Your Ideas, Your NATO". Students and young professionals created policy memos for the NATO summit in Chicago and received great feedback from decision makers at a successful event in Berlin. This project was part of atlantic-community.org’s ongoing effort to empower young people in the transatlantic debate and develop collective solutions to important international issues.
Participants were asked to submit a short opinion article in one of our three categories of debate: transatlantic values and community, partnerships after the Arab Spring, and Smart Defense. For each category, authors of the five best contributions were brought together through interactive wikis and conference calls to refine their arguments and reach a consensus on policy recommendations. These online policy workshops resulted in three Atlantic Memos, one on each category topic.
The three first place winners presented their memos to Philip D. Murphy, the US Ambassador, and Christian Schmidt, Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Defense, at our event in Berlin on May 21, 2012: Insights from the Next Generation: The Presentations. Feedback to the memos also included a response from Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence of Canada: Policy Makers Respond to "Your Ideas, Your NATO"
Related projected: How German Experts Perceived the Chicago Summit.
Atlantic Memos
Atlantic-community.org produced six Atlantic Memos with concrete policy recommendations.
- Memo 37: From Escalation to Engagement with Iran: How to Avoid War
- Memo 38: One NATO: Strengthening Unity through Transparency and Engagement
- Memo 39: Partners in Democracy, Partners in Security: NATO and the Arab Spring
- Memo 40: Get "Smart": Paving the Way to a More Efficient Alliance
- Memo 41: Looking Beyond Chicago: How to Revitalize NATO
- Memo 42: Irregular Immigration: Matching the Labor Market and Mobility Incentives
Atlantic Insights
The editorial team has produced three ebooks in PDF, mobi and epub
format in 2012.
The first volume of Atlantic Insights was published to mark International
Women's Day 2012 and increase the visibility of women in the international
security debate and contains the three winning articles from our "Women
on Transatlantic Security" competition.
The second was based on our Iran theme week and the third featured the
highlights from the first half of 2012: Editors'
Picks for Your Summer Reading
How YOU can get involved in our open think tank
Please continue to engage in the debates and contribute op-eds on the most important challenges that Europe and North America face. Op-eds only need to be 500 - 700 words long and contain a clear thesis with policy recommendations. By doing so, you will be making your voices heard in the foreign policy discourse. Here is some advice on writing for our open think tank.
Last but not least, we would be extremely grateful if you could extend invitations to your friends and colleagues to join atlantic-community.org. Our community has now grown to over 7,500 members and with your help, we hope to see it expand even further. As you know, we provide extensive opportunities for networking, career development, and debate as well as concrete opportunities to influence decision-makers.
Our mission is to give a voice to a new generation of thinkers and to contribute to a more diverse transatlantic strategic community. You don't have to be an expert on foreign policy; you just need to have some good ideas and be able to support your arguments. We're open to new ideas and new perspectives.
You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter:
Thank you to all of our members for their contributions this year. We are working on a new website for atlantic-community.org and hope to make next year even better!
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