Dialogue on transatlantic values

There is a place in Berlin that Rüdiger Lentz is particularly fond of recommending to young people: an exhibition space called “BlackBox Kalter Krieg” at Checkpoint Charlie. Lentz is not one to dwell 
on the past, on the contrary. But 
as the Executive Director of the Aspen 
Institute Germany knows, “nobody who grew up after the Wall came down in Berlin can have any idea of how divided Germany was and how it lived in the midst 
of the icy conflict between East and 
West. That is part of German history and people need to remain aware of it.” One of the reasons why this idea of remaining aware of things is so important to Lentz is that despite its rich history, Aspen Institute Germany has a keen eye for the 
challenges and political crises of the 
present. Lentz says: “If you look only to 
the past, you cannot shape the future.”

Aspen Institute Germany trains people’s eye for the present by means of com­prehensive programs that include seminars for leading figures and decision-makers from the world of politics, 
business, academia, and the media. The Institute’s public program is geared to a wider audience. One example – a discussion evening on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership TTIP in 
summer 2014. Another, the first Berlin Transatlantic Conference; it took place 
in October as part of the celebrations 
to mark the Institute’s 40th anniversary. The conference’s motto also highlighted the fact that Lentz and his team would rather ask questions than be complacent about what they have already achieved: “The Transatlantic Partnership at Stake: Do We Still Need Each Other?” asked 
the conference title; at a roundtable the questions discussed were not only free trade but also the role of NATO and the threats to people’s private spheres and their safety posed by the “digital revolution”. In her keynote speech, Victoria 
Nuland, Assistant Secretary of State in Washington, mentioned the strain placed on German-American relations by the NSA affair. Talking about a way out of 
this crisis of confidence she said: “This is hard, hard work. What we are trying to 
do is restructure our intelligence relationship for the 21st century. I am confident that we will do it and that we will be successful at it.”

However strong the transatlantic bond may be, Lentz stresses that dialogue is 
essential. With regard to data security 
he refers to Germany’s historical experience with the Nazi regime of total surveillance and terror: “Accordingly, we Germans have become particularly sensitive about surveillance by the state – rightly so.” And Lentz also says: “A transatlantic partnership does not mean 100% congruence in all areas but that a dialogue is 
conducted between friends, one that must also be able to withstand conflict and 
controversial debates.” As his professional career demonstrates, Lentz is committed to the transatlantic ideal – amongst other things, he was editor-in-chief at 
a German-American television station, RIAS-TV, and was in charge of the Deutsche Welle bureau in Washington. Lentz is the first German to take the helm at Aspen Institute Germany. He himself sees this as a “sign of normality” in 
German-American relations.

Normality yes, but routine preferably not: over the coming years Lentz would like 
to take the “dialogue on transatlantic 
values” out to a wider audience: “Now 
that hundreds of thousands of American soldiers are no longer stationed in Germany many people have lost their understanding of why the transatlantic community of safety and values remains so important.” On the other hand, he sees 
the Ukraine crisis and the annexation of the Crimea by Russia as an acid test: “We need to ask ourselves what values such 
as freedom mean to us. To what extent 
are we prepared to stand up for them? And what political and diplomatic tools are available to us to this end?” He expounds that even in times of acute political crisis Aspen Institute Germany aspires to kindle dialogue and make fruitful use of its numerous contacts with decision-makers.

Not long ago, on a November evening in Berlin, it once again became clear how 
seriously this was meant. The panel at the British Embassy included no less than nine foreign ministers – in cooperation with the German Federal Foreign Office and the British Embassy, Aspen Institute Germany had sent out invitations to its Sixth Southeast Europe Foreign Ministers’ Conference; Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his British counterpart Philip Hammond were patrons of the evening. With its panels 
and many informal opportunities for 
discussions the conference once again 
offered a framework for an exchange of views that was anything but a matter of course. “Nowadays, for example, the Serbian and the Kosovar foreign ministers 
sit down at the table and try together to diffuse conflicts between their states and to collaborate from a European perspective,” explains Lentz, talking about Aspen Institute Germany’s Southeast Europe program that brings together decision-makers and experts from the Western Balkans, Turkey, Russia, the United States, Germany, the EU, NATO and other in­ternational organizations, “approaching 
an Euro-Atlantic security community,” as Lentz puts it. Security and a reliable partnership are values worth upholding. 
Something that both history and the 
present have taught us.