Atlantic Community:Us

About Atlantische Initiative

Atlantic-community.org is a project conducted by the Atlantische Initiative, a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Berlin. The Atlantische Initiative was founded in 2004 in order to promote transatlantic cooperation and strengthen Germany’s foreign policy culture.

We believe that the challenges of the twenty-first century can only be overcome if Europe and North America work together. We endeavor to contribute to the development of a strategic community that encompasses all relevant social spheres: politics, business, academia, culture, and the media.

We seek to:

Spread the message that today's transatlantic agenda is global: International challenges like terrorism, the energy crisis, and the rise of new powers in Asia demand a unified Western policy.
Promote frank debates and collaboration between Europe and North America on issues of globalization and foreign policy.
Cultivate and improve intellectual exchange across the Atlantic through increased networking opportunities between decision-makers, senior experts, as well as a new generation of students and future policy professionals.
Promote and advance the future generation of decision-makers.
Analyze foreign policy and the challenges of the twenty-first century in such a way that everybody can understand them. Our leitmotif is: Accessible Foreign Policy for Everybody!

In order to attain these goals we have implemented various projects:

1. Online Think Tank

Atlantic-community.org was launched in April, 2007, as the first online platform for transatlantic debate on key issues of international politics and globalization. We recognized the need for a new English-language venture that would strengthen European-American ties and thus reinforce the idea that today’s transatlantic agenda is global.
The project is supported by a start-up grant from the European Recovery Program fund of the German government’s Ministry for Economics and Technology (BMWi), a grant by the German Federal Press Office, and with personal investment from founders Dr. Johannes Bohnen and Jan-Friedrich Kallmorgen. Read more in atlantic-community.org's mission statement.

2. Newsletter

In addition to our English language website, atlantic-community.org, we produce a monthly German language service called “Global Must Reads.” This is a premium selection of studies and analyses from over 50 American and European sources (Think Tanks, magazines, and journals) which are concisely summarized for our readers. “Global Must Reads” is sent in PDF-format to more than 15.000 decision-makers in politics, economics, the media and academia. This makes “Global Must Reads” the most widely distributed foreign policy publication in the German language.

3. Events

Atlantic Happy Hour – Security Policy out of the Box: In cooperation with NATO we developed an innovative forum for addressing current security policy issues, also accessible to those whose work does not directly involve foreign and security policy. Topics have so far included Germany’s involvement in Afghanistan and the future of German army deployment abroad. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has already attended this event twice.

Atlantic Lunch Club: In cooperation with the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) we host regular discussion groups, both informal and high profile, at the Atlantic Initiative’s offices, directly opposite the German parliament. Politicians, business people, and academics brief the participants on developments in strategically important emerging regions like India, China, Russia and the Gulf. Subjects like energy security, climate change and terrorism are also discussed.

The Future of the West: The aim of this event, in cooperation with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, is to advance the transatlantic debate on the state, the economy and society. Current issues from both sides of the Atlantic are discussed under the headings: What kind of society do we really live in? What can we learn from each other? Past themes have included: “Civil liberties in Germany and the USA after 9/11,” “He who dies rich, dies in shame – philanthropy in Germany and the USA,” and “Learning from the USA? – The transatlantic energy debate.”

The Team

Founding Directors

Dr. Johannes Bohnen studied international relations at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and received his doctorate degree from Oxford University. Following positions with several think tanks, the German Bundestag and the German government, he was founder and managing director of Scholz & Friends Agenda, a public affairs agency in Berlin. Johannes is a partner at Bohnen Kallmorgen & Partner, a consultancy for policy analysis and strategic communications in Berlin.

Jan-Friedrich Kallmorgen is trained as an historian and holds a master's degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service. He has worked in journalism and as a business consultant in Washington, D.C., and was an investment manager with Goldman, Sachs & Co from 2000 to 2003. From 2004 to 2007 he served as head of the Transatlantic Program at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and is now a partner at Bohnen Kallmorgen & Partner, a consultancy for policy analysis and strategic communications in Berlin.

Berlin Office

Joerg Wolf is project manager and editor-in-chief of atlantic-community.org. Jörg studied political science at the Free University of Berlin and worked as a research associate for the International Risk Policy project at the Free University's Center for Transatlantic Foreign and Security Policy. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Washington D.C. and has worked for the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Cairo and in Berlin.

Ben Heine works as head of outreach at atlantic-community.org. Ben graduated with a BA in international studies from the University of Chicago. During his studies he spent one year at the Kyoto Consortium for Japanese studies, and worked at the Stanford Center for Technology and Innovation. After graduation he returned to Japan to continue his study of the Japanese language, and worked for several independent film productions in Germany.

Annette Pölking is a consultant to the Atlantic Initiative. She studied political science and history at the University of Siegen and the Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg. She received a DAAD scholarship to study American studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. She worked at the Department for International Politics at the University of Freiburg and was head of marketing/project planning at AIESEC Freiburg. After graduating Annette worked at the IES Freiburg’s EU Program and at the Koerber Foundation in Berlin.

Sonja Davidovic is a consultant to the Atlantic Initiative and a graduate student at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington DC. She received an MA in political science, sinology and economics from Bonn University, Germany. Sonja spent a year at the Capital University of Business and Economics in Beijing, China, on a research scholarship awarded by the German Academic Exchange Office (DAAD). Sonja has worked in private corporations, public opinion research institutes, the Serbian Embassy in Berlin, and the Serbian Chamber of Commerce in Frankfurt a.M. She was also research assistant at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC.

Interns

Gaelle Fisher was born in England yet raised in France, she attended University College London and graduated with a BA in German and history in July 2007. She is currently acquiring work experience in Berlin before moving on to postgraduate study in the field of politics and international relations from September 2008.

Crystal Oswald-Herold will graduate from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 2009 with a BS in international politics and an emphasis on international law, ethics and institutions. Before interning at atlantic-community.org, Crystal worked at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in Washington, DC. She is currently on an exchange program in Berlin at Humboldt University.

Ethan Arrow completed his BA at Wheaton College in Illinois with majors in European history and German studies. After graduation he spent a year in Düsseldorf as a Fulbright Fellow teaching at a German high school and studying European integration at Heinrich-Heine-Universität. He is currently a guest student at the Freie Universität completing his MA in European integration through the Middlebury College School of German in Vermont.

Natalia Ruban is currently studying political science at the Free University Berlin with the focus on international politics. Before joining Atlantic Community, she worked as a tutor and the speaker of the Foreign Students Department at the Free University Berlin and was a part of the Berlin delegation at the National Model United Nations Conference in New York in 2007.

Ania Wojnilko has recently graduated with a master’s degree from Humboldt University where she read British studies with the focus on law, politics and economics. She got her BA in British literature at the University of Szczecin in Poland, spending a year as a guest student at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University in Greifswald, Germany. Before she joined Atlantic Community she worked as a language teacher and completed an internship in the British Parliament, working as a research assistant to Ben Bradshaw, MP.

About Atlantic Initiative U.S.

The Atlantic Initiative U.S. was founded in May 2008. It's a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Washington, D.C.

Rüdiger Lentz is the president of Atlantic Initiative U.S. He studied international relations and history at the University of Hamburg and has been the Washington bureau chief and senior diplomatic correspondent for Deutsche Welle Radio and Television since January 1999. Prior to his assignment in Washington, he served as Deutsche Welle�s Brussels Bureau Chief. Before joining Deutsche Welle, Rüdiger worked as a correspondent for the German news magazine Der Spiegel and as a TV commentator and reporter at ARD/WDR. He is a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, UCLA, and the Federal Armed Forces University and a regular guest on CNN and C-Span.

Christopher Jurgens is a member of the board of Atlantic Initiative U.S. He is a senior manager at Accenture Development Partnerships and an accomplished speaker on non-profit consulting, global management, technology services and outsourcing. Accenture Development Partnerships is a non-profit organization that provides consulting services to donors, non-governmental organisations and other non-profit entities working in developing countries. He holds degrees from Georgetown and Miami University and has worked at the Office of the Secretary at the US Department of Transportation’s international affairs division.

Julianne Smith is a member of the board of Atlantic Initiative U.S. She is the director of the European program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) and the Initiative for a Renewed Transatlantic Partnership (RTP). She is also an associate fellow at the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI). Before joining CSIS, Smith worked for the German Marshall Fund, where she was an officer for the Foreign Policy Program and director of communications for the Project on the Role of American Military Power, as a senior analyst on the European security desk of the British American Security Information Council, and at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Germany. She has received fellowships from the American Academy, the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Fredin Memorial Scholarship for study at the Sorbonne in Paris. She holds a BA from Xavier University and a MA from American University.

Wess Mitchell is a member of the board of Atlantic Initiative U.S. He is director of research at The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), a research institute dedicated to the study of Central Europe. Mitchell is a frequent contributor to leading American and European newspapers and journals and a regular speaker at transatlantic policy conferences and workshops. Mitchell was a policy analyst at the National Center for Policy Analysis and worked in the office of Texas Congressman Larry Combest. He holds an undergraduate degree in history and a master’s degree in German and European studies from Georgetown University; and a graduate certificate from the American Consortium on European Union Studies.

Andreas Heine is representative of Atlantic Initiative U.S. He finished his studies with a MA in political theory and modern history at Georgia Augusta University in Göttingen and Oxford Brookes University. After having finished his traineeship at Deutsche Bank in Hamburg and Frankfurt, Andreas served as the assistant of the global head of communications and crand management in Frankfurt and continued his work as a global brand manager. After several years with the advertising and PR agency Scholz & Friends in Berlin, he currently works as a freelance consultant in Germany and the US.

Advisory Board Members of the Atlantic Initiative

Dr. Rudolf Adam, President, Federal College for Security Studies (BAKS), Berlin
Dr. Ronald D. Asmus, Senior Transatlantic Fellow, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Washington, D.C.
Prof. Dr. Arnulf Baring, Historian, Berlin
Dr. Christoph Bertram, Hamburg
Carl-Eduard von Bismarck, Member of Parliament, Berlin
Dr. Philipp v. Boehm-Bezing, BBSC Boehm-Bezing, Sieger & Cie., Stuttgart
Dr. Mark Brzezinski, McGuireWoods, Washington, D.C.
Jürgen Chrobog, BMW Stiftung Herbert Quandt, Munich
Thomas L. Farmer, American Bankers Association, Washington, D.C.
Dr. Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt
Dr. Jeffrey Gedmin, President, Radio Free Europe, Prague
Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg, Member of Parliament, Committee on Foreign Relations, Berlin
Prof. Dr. Helga Haftendorn, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Berlin
Dr. John C. Hulsman, Ph.D., Oppenheim Scholar, German Council on Foreign Relations, Berlin
Dr. Michael J. Inacker, Co-Editor Wirtschaftswoche, Berlin
Dr. Jackson Janes, Director, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, Washington, D.C.
Marvin Kalb, Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Dr. Walther Leisler Kiep, Chairman Emeritus, Atlantik-Brücke, Berlin
Eckart von Klaeden, Member of Parliament, Berlin
Hans-Ulrich Klose, Member of Parliament, Committee on Foreign Relations, Berlin
John Kornblum, Chairman Lazard Germany, Berlin
Dr. Charles Kupchan, Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, D.C.
Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Member of European Parliament, Brussels
Dr. Kurt J. Lauk, Chairman, CDU Business Council (Wirtschaftsrat), Berlin
Dr. Beate Lindemann, Executive Vice-Chairmann, Atlantik-Brücke, Berlin
Heike MacKerron, Director for Europe, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Berlin
Dr. Norbert Otten, Direktor Policy Issues, Daimler AG, Stuttgart
Cem Özdemir, Member of European Parliament, Brussels
Ruprecht Polenz, Member of Parliament, Chairman Committee on Foreign Relations, Berlin
Avi Primor, Former Israeli Ambassador to Germany, Tel Aviv
Prof. Dr. Eberhard Sandschneider, Director, German Council on Foreign Relations, Berlin
Prof. Dr. H.c. Horst M. Teltschlik, President, Boeing Germany, Berlin
Karsten D. Voigt, Coordinator of German-American Cooperation, Foreign Office, Berlin
Lord Wallace, House of Lords, London