Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of participating in the Manfred Wörner Seminar, a program that convenes young professionals from the U.S. and Europe to discuss #Transatlantic relations 🌍 and security in Bonn, Brussels, and Berlin. I could write so much on what I learned from fellow participants and speakers from organizations like #NATO, the #EuropeanUnion and other multilateral organizations, the German Parliament and Armed Forces, think tanks, and more.
Instead, I’ll focus on a standout theme for me: #risk.
It is clear that Western countries, and Europe in particular, have thoroughly neglected investments that prevent or mitigate risk. This issue affects defense 🛡 and deterrence (including cyber), supply chain 🏭 and energy ⚡ security, civilian protection 🏙 and climate resiliency ☁, and more. We saw what it meant to be unprepared with COVID-19 in 2020; we saw it again following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Managing risk is expensive and its benefits are either invisible or spread over the long term, with poor alignment with political cycles. Voters and decision-makers have become averse to investments—especially in defense—following years of retrenchment, austerity, and a false sense of insulation and security.
It is time to once again build a proactive and visionary consensus. The Biden Administration’s industrial and climate legislation and Mario Draghi’s report on European competitiveness point the way to ambitious plans to make our societies wealthier, healthier, safer, and more resilient. Every day we wait, the costs increase.
I am energized to work with my Transatlantic and pan-European peers to achieve this not in national isolation, but together. Thank you to Jana Teetz, Michael Wawrzyniak, and the Bundeswehr Wir. Dienen. Deutschland. for hosting us, to HR&A Advisors for sponsoring my attendance, and to all of the other participants for their insights, questions, and conversations—it was an inspiring 11 days with rich professional and social connections.
#ManfredWoernerSeminar
