Ambassador of Germany Wolfgang Ischinger Germany Stands by Friend in Times of Need by Shaazka Beyerle Six days after the heinous terrorist attack on New York and Washington, D.C., Germanyís new ambassador to the United States, Wolfgang Ischinger, expresses the shocked sentiments of Americaís friends across the Atlantic. "Europeans have instinctively understood that this is an attack not just against the American people, but against humanity and the civilized world as a whole," says Ischinger. "Therefore we regard it as an attack on us." Germany, he says, wants to work with the United States to prevent future attacks and to bring the people responsible to justice. He asserted that there are a large number of elements that need to be brought together to create a comprehensive, sustainable and effective global strategy against international terrorism. "We hear a lot about military responses to this problem," he adds, "but I think that for such a strategy to be effective, we need also to have political, economic, financial and other elements." This includes better international police cooperation to track people, or to conduct surveillance of cellular phone activities of criminals. Many may not know that the FBI has a liaison person at its German equivalent, and there is a law enforcement representative in the German Embassy who is in daily contact with the FBI and other agencies. "I can tell you that as we sit here, the phones keep ringing between Germany and the United States in all of these fieldsóbetween the military establishments, the law enforcement authorities, people responsible for immigration policies, etc.," says the ambassador. In some circles the concept of payback has been raised, namely that Europe should stand with the United States in fighting international terrorism because of all America has done for Europe in the previous century. Ambassador Ischinger chose to sidestep this issue of recompense, perhaps not to introduce a note of discord into a sincere message of amity with America. What he was willing to say was, "Germany is ready to take its role. We need to be seen together in solidarity, we need to act together in solidarity and we are prepared to do that on the basis of very careful, very close and very trustful consultations." Ischinger says that Europe also has important responsibilities to strengthen trans-Atlantic cooperation in the fight against international terrorism. "We need to bring our own public around to understanding what kind of new world we live in after last week. This is a new era with a new ballgameóto use a colloquialismóa new threat. It is probably the new central theme of the 21st century," he says. For Ambassador Ischinger, the nature of the threat itself will require a different kind of effort. "There is no enemy state or group of states visible. Thatís a huge problem. We donít know against whom we need to direct our efforts. We know about certain groups, but itís not as easy as if you were dealing with a state or group of states." Part of the challenge for trans-Atlantic cooperation is to figure out exactly what the Germans, British, French and other European countries can do, he says. To this end, the ambassador envisions a worldwide coalition based upon concentric circles. "I would argue in favor of a coalition-building effortówhich I know that President Bush and his administration are already working onówhich will have concentric circles. Part of the inner core are countries that share the values of the United States: democracy, rule of law, protecting the rights and lives of individual citizens," he notes. This would include the member countries of the traditional Western alliance. Ischinger thinks that these countries are prepared to act together with us. In an outer circle can be countriesófor example, Russiaóthat are not as closely linked to America by tradition, history or political relationships but which also have an interest in fighting international terrorism. He also sees NATO playing a new, unprecedented role within the inner concentric circle. One may recall that within hours of the terrorist attack, NATOís members, for the first time in its history, invoked Article 5, the security guarantee in which an attack on one member is considered an attack on all. "This is an overwhelming confirmation that Europeans understood the dimension of the challenge and of the threat to all of us in the alliance and beyond," he says. Ambassador Ischinger points out that this clause was originally conceived as a way for the United States to protect European allies from foreign Cold War threats. No one ever imagined that NATO would now be used for America to obtain help from its traditional allies. Germanyís new representative to the United States arrived in July. He is an affable, articulate man with passionate convictions and warm eyes despite a serious demeanor befitting an ambassador. Before moving to Washington, D.C., to assume his duties, he served as the deputy foreign minister of Germany. He has achieved a distinguished career over a relatively short time. He speaks English with the casual ease of one who has lived among Americans and is thoroughly familiar with our society and culture. The ambassadorís connection to the United States runs deep. He first came to our country as an impressionable high school exchange student, where he spent a year in rural Illinois surrounded by cornfields. He earned a masterís degree in international law from the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University and did post-graduate work at Harvard University. He has had two previous stints in the United States: from 1973 to 1975 as a special assistant to the Cabinet of the United Nations secretary-general and later as first secretary in the German Embassy from 1979 to 1982. He has thought carefully about his new mission as ambassador. The terrorist attack a few weeks ago introduced a new heartrending dimension, but he believes he can still fulfill his two original goals. The first goal is to convince Americans that "Europe matters, that Europe is not irrelevant to the future, to the prosperity, to the well being, to the security of the American people." Within a few years, when the next wave of enlargement is complete, the population of the European Union will grow to 500 million people. He argued that there are no two regions in the world that share the same values as North America and Europe. "When push comes to shove, I think that as weíve seen in the last few days, America and Europe will stand together and confront challenges together," he adds. His second goal is to make Americans aware that Europe is not a static entity. "As we speak of Europe, as we speak of Germany, we speak of a moving target. Europe is a laboratory," the ambassador says. "The Europe and the Germany that people knew 20 years ago are not going to be the Europe and Germany of 2005 or 2010." According to the ambassador, Europe is undergoing enormous social as well as political and economic changes, which he views as positive developments. Germany, and many other countries in the European Union, no longer have homogeneous populations. As an example, he cited that Berlin today has more than 300,000 "Turkish Berliners." He added, "Berlin is growing into a multi-ethnic city in more or less the same way New York developed into a multi-ethnic city in the 19th century." There are a number of major changes coming down the pike in Europe. On Jan. 1, the members of the European Union, with the exception of Great Britain, will introduce a single currency called the euro into circulation. For Americans, the single currency will simplify life. "Wherever you go, as a tourist or as a business, you will only have to change money once," he says. For those who follow Europe, what remains to be seen is ease of the transition, the stability of the currency, and its strength against the dollar. The second big transition is enlargement: "We remain committed to the rapid completion of enlargement negotiations," Ambassador Ischinger says. Germanyís motivation can be traced to the Cold War, when it bordered the Iron Curtain and was divided into two countries, the democratic West and the communist East. "There is no better way for Germany to feel consolidated than to know that we will no longer be a frontline country, not in security terms, not in economic terms. We want to be in the middle of a group of consolidated and free nations," he says. He hopes that by the end of 2002, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia will be admitted into the European Union. The other future candidate countries are Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Turkey. Left out of this picture is the conflicted Balkans, where trans-Atlantic cooperation has sought to end vicious ethnic clashes, which still simmer below the surface in Bosnia and Kosovo, and have erupted in Macedonia. Many Americans are not aware that U.S.-German cooperation was important in launching the July 1999 Stability Pact, an initiative of political and economic support for the region. Although some critics say it has not achieved much thus far, Ambassador Ischinger argues that it is valuable that Germany continues to support it. He sees it as program to bring to the citizens of the southeast Balkans a long-term perspective of belonging to the European Union. He adds that no matter how many setbacks on the ground, Germany will not end its engagement in the region. "We cannot let these people down. We are in this for the long haul." Any relationship involves differences, but in this case, Ambassador Ischinger needs a bit of prompting to discuss where Germany and the United States do not see eye to eye. He acknowledges that there is a debate on both sides about some issues, such as the death penalty. "But letís not act as if there is a major gap in values," Ischinger says. "True, the majority of Europeans believe that the death penalty should not exist anymore. True, there appears to be a somewhat different majority in this country. But the debate is exactly about the same questions. Is it ethical? Is it moral? I think that this kind of difference should not be blown out of proportion and interpreted as a major cultural or values gap between Europe and the United States." Missile defense has become a source of growing contention between the United States and the European Union, as the Europeans remain skeptical about its usefulness and operability. The ambassador takes a wait-and-see approach. "Missile defense, if it works, would be highly desirable from the German view because my country is completely vulnerable to all forms of attack from weapons of mass destruction," he says. "But the problem is that we are not certain that it actually works." In the meantime, Germany does not want abandoned the existing system of arms control agreements arrangements, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty. Any discussion of missile defense raises the question of relations with Russia because along with the United States it is one of the two signatories of the ABM Treaty. "We in Germany are in favor of honoring treaty arrangements with Russia," the ambassador adds. "We are in favor of creating as much confidence with the Russian federation as possible." The ambassador expresses the hope that if the United States seeks to withdraw from the ABM Treaty, in order to pursue a missile defense program, then "the ongoing consultation process between the United States and the Russian federation be conducted in such a way that at the end of the day, whether the ABM Treaty is maintained or is ended, it will be done in a spirit that will not damage the East-West relationship." As the afternoon came to a close, Ambassador Ischinger spoke of his fondness for America and what it feels like to return. "I loved every minute of living in the U.S. It is a dream come true to be back in the country that I regard as my second home," he continues. He admits that in the past, each time he has lived in the United States, at some point he began to dream in English. He reported that he had his first such dream last week. Shaazka Beyerle is a freelance writer in Maryland.