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Sixty-four Americans and Germans from top academic, corporate, foundation, government, military and media organizations met from August 24-29 2008 in Hamburg, Germany for the 35th anniversary of the Atlantik-Bruecke's Young Leaders conference "Beyond Transatlantic Evergreens: How Can Young Leaders Influence the Future."

Participants suggested that events such as the upcoming US Presidential election and 60^th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) hold significant potential for new approaches to building and enhancing Transatlantic relationships rooted in shared values, mutual respect and cooperation. The week-long discussion was marked by a cooperative tone and focused to large extent on the need for strengthened Transatlantic ties, particularly in the face of a shifting global economic and geopolitical landscape.

Attendees agreed that the Transatlantic relationship has struggled to respond to challenges posed by (re-)rising powers (e.g. China and Russia) in an increasingly complex and unstable world. The group discussed and proposed solutions to pressing foreign affairs, economic and social issues, including the current conflicts in Georgia and Afghanistan, and the global crisis in financial markets. In general, the group suggested the following measures as steps to confront new challenges and reinvigorate longstanding Transatlantic relationships:

• In the future, NATO will find itself increasingly involved in conflicts that require a new comprehensive approach that should be integrated with humanitarian operations and civilian capabilities.

• In Afghanistan the Transatlantic relationship faces an immediate, critical test. Success in Afghanistan is needed as a demonstration of our ability to effectively address common security threats.

• Recent crises in financial markets demonstrate the interdependence and vulnerability of global economic systems. In addition, globalisation, competition over scarce resources and energy dependence are sources of concern at home and potential conflict abroad. These issues must be jointly addressed to mitigate potential and real economic and social unrest.

Specific areas of focus and recommendations included:

Facilitating greater European-US cooperation in a changing, multi-polar and globalized world by:

• Implementing a comprehensive approach that includes civilian and military means including new policies, procedures and plans for civil military organization.

• Expanding NATO's concept of security and how it addresses challenges and new threats, including those related to energy, health and cyber security.

• Rebalance military capabilities and develop civilian capabilities to meet new and emerging threats via enforcement, policing, and governance.

• Establishing Transatlantic, Iran-focused initiatives between Iranian and Western Young Leaders to influence a secure, sustainable future by leveraging existing exchanges and initiatives and developing new exchanges when necessary. This is all the more important, since the current situation in Iran, and similarly in Russia and Georgia, indicates that military action is not always a preferred option.

• Securing success in Afghanistan, which is threatened by the lack of political will and US reluctance to work through multilateral organizations, via:

1. Leveraging 60^th anniversary of NATO to demonstrate a more coordinated Transatlantic approach to addressing Afghanistan.
2. Enhancing political support in Germany by issuing a binding cross-party statement of support for and commitment to German involvement in this multinational endeavor.
3. Establishing an independent and credible international audit body to report regularly and comprehensively on the situation in Afghanistan in order to advise decision makers and keep the public informed.

Greater economic interdependence and need for harmonization by:

• Strengthening the Transatlantic Economic Council and making the harmonization of rules and regulations of financial markets a priority.

• Incorporating a Transatlantic climate and energy partnership within the framework of the Transatlantic Economic Council to accelerate the development and adoption of clean energy and other technologies, e.g. the:

1. Creation of shared Transatlantic research and development funding pools.
2. Reconciliation of national climate policies.
3. Integration of technology markets.

• Expanding the G8 to include additional leading economies, reflecting a renewedemphasis on economic performance and contemporary relevance instead of historical prominence.

• Encouraging the EU and United States to agree to terms and a timeline for incremental decrease of agricultural subsidies.

• Diverting funding of foreign assistance donor nations from traditional aid to assistance for micro-financing and small and medium-sized enterprises, supporting peoples rather than national leaders.

• Agreeing on minimum business-practice standards and create a CSR rating system to provide transparency for consumers and market-driven incentives for companies to align business goals with social and environmental needs.

• Establishing a shared framework that aligns long-term corporate performance and management compensation.

In the long-term, establishing a Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement.

The German-American Young Leaders Conference is an annual event organized by Atlantik-Brücke and has been hosted alternately in Germany and America since 1973. It offers participants from both sides of the Atlantic the opportunity to intensively discuss current transatlantic topics during a week of plenary sessions and working groups.

Related materials from the Atlantic Community:

• David Neil Lebhar: Presidential Elections Will Not Shape US Foreign Policy
• Anna Wojnilko: The Shift in Global Power Calls for More Burden Sharing
• Leonie Holthaus: EU Should Balance Criticism Toward Russia and Georgia

September 22, 2008

Member deleted

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I like this comment! What's this?

A short comment:

Young leaders are building Transatlantic relations on base of shared values, mutual respect and cooperation. I wonder how those shared values are selected and what they are, is there mutual respect and what is the status of cooperation.

The actions seemed have mostly military priorties, maybe young leaders are not interested about climachange or other ecological, social, humanitarian etc. questions.

Ok, it is not my problem - I am not an young leader anyway.

Tags: | values | young leaders ecology |

September 22, 2008

Bernhard Lucke, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Platinum Contributor (531)

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the strong focus on military issues might be connected with the young leader's unwillingness to discuss that the present course of politics might be problematic at its basis, and not only the ways how these policies are carried out. Is there no dissident among them? Given the tremendous costs of the recent conflicts, I guess that most of our current problems (war, terror, financial crisis, climate change, unsustainable use of resources) are connected.

For me, the young leaders' response seems: "close your eyes and run through". Hopefully we won't run into an abyss... Many of the suggested steps will certainly be helpful, but will they suffice? For me it sounds a little bit as if we had no choices during the last decade, and as if we had no responsibility for the emergence of the problems described above. Just remember the "Limits to Growth".

I would say that better leadership could have prevented many of these problems. As already announced in some posts, I dislike most the re-militarization of our society, namely the creation of Islam as a new concept of an enemy, and the focus on the control of stategic territory like Afghanistan. The preoccupation with these self-made challenges binds resources, increases the likelihood of escalating conflicts, and hinders to address the deeper roots of our problems. Which is our energy policy, living style, and the process called globalization.

We can discuss who is right, Malthus or Condorcet. But there is no doubt that resources on this planet are limited. If everybody starts driving cars as we do, there will either be a breakdown (Malthus), or the ingenious invetion of a mobile device which uses 99% less fuel (Condorcet). In my opinion, the young leaders' military focus favours Malthus and those obstructing change. That Malthus was wrong in the past unfortunately does not predict he will be wrong again.

September 25, 2008

A Russian in Germany

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Both Malthus and Condorcet were right. Traditional civilizations periodically collapsed due to limitations of resources. The problem now is that due to globalization the systems functioning according to Malthus are entangled with Condorcet's ones. Islamic societies represent a Malthusian pattern: expand or collapse. It is not a self-made enemy. Any religion opposes progress. By the way, Condorcet played an active role in the French Revolution. Military is merely a tool, what are the goals? Consider military force used in order to preserve rain forest. Would it be OK then?

Tags: | values | young leaders ecology |

September 26, 2008

Patrick Edwin Moran, Wake Forest University, Platinum Contributor (207)

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There are forces more pervasive, and more powerful, than "a shifting global economic and geopolitical landscape." Without understanding the underlying dynamics, it will be impossible to manage "an increasingly complex and unstable world." The correct management of the most serious problems on the horizon will involve tactics that must “be integrated with humanitarian operations and civilian capabilities." But it is misleading at best to say that “success in Afghanistan is needed as a demonstration of our ability to effectively address common security threats." It would be very helpful, and a sign of great hope to all, if the problems currently besetting Afghanistan could be met. That is not, however, to say that the main goal of efforts there is and should be to deny transnational bad actors a convenient staging ground. The people of Afghanistan deserve peace and security as their birthright, but because it would prove anything about the moral or functional status of second parties.

Not only do "globalisation, competition over scarce resources and energy dependence" face the people of the world as "sources of concern at home and potential conflict abroad." It is not particularly that these issues promise "potential and real economic and social unrest." Globalization is a co-actor with global population increase, and the population is one of the prime movers in the entire maelstrom that faces humanity in the relatively near future. The other main factor is global warming, and it interacts directly with the growing scarcity of resources. The resources in question are not only energy resources, but also arable land, water, etc.

No buildings can be established on a slope of sliding sand. It is good to see attention being directed toward the establishment of these buildings (values, respect, cooperation, economic stability and success, democratic institutions, etc., etc.), but disappointing not to see indications of awareness of the dynamic system that will drive changes and challenges in all fields that humans find central to their interests and even to their survival.
The sand must be stabilized before any other accomplishments have any hope of being other than ephemeral.

September 26, 2008

Patrick Edwin Moran, Wake Forest University, Platinum Contributor (207)

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Sorry,

"The people of Afghanistan deserve peace and security as their birthright, but because it would prove anything about the moral or functional status of second parties." should have been:

"The people of Afghanistan deserve peace and security as their birthright, not because it would prove anything about the moral or functional status of second parties."

October 10, 2008

Member deleted

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Edward and I shared the boundaries of our kitchen garden. The other side of the fence lay Henry's kitchen garden and Alice's kitchen garden adjoined that of Henry. It was a wonderful time of sharing and bartering our surplus and produce. We called it the patch economy and we always were proudly competing with who could grow the most exotic and rare of vegetables, alongwith the regular ones. Then suddenly we found that we were producing more than we needed and we also could make an extra buck by selling it at the village mart. So we agreed to form a small co-operative society based on our well-established norms by now. We did and had our own stall at the village market - where apart from the regular produce, we had - by rotation - special shelves where we would display our individual speciality - based upon the day who would be attending to the stall that day. Everything was cheerful and nice, in a way, and we were eager to even introduce our story to many visitors there.
Then one day we found that one of the shelves in our stall was broken. The other day, someone had scratched the pain from our sign-boards. Yet another time, someone had cut a hole in the store section of our stall. We finally decided to sell our produce through mail-order. That sounded like a bright idea and we began scouting for people and marts who would be interested. Alice suggested that we should be careful of similar pilferages and damages or even non-payment, after our village mart experience. Henry agreed and Edward agreed. I thought that all this was taking the fun out and it was taking too much of my time. My disagreement with our co-operative however was much less damaging than the disagreement of someone or some people at the village mart with our story and our stall and maybe - we all suspect - our cheerful success till then. I eventually came around to agree and let Alice share my burden of time, while I continued with my old schedule. She of course got a discount on my special spinach wednesday produce - real purple green 'carb-pro' spinach leaves!

Tags: | values | worldviews | objectives | imaginations |

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