NATO – A Bridge Across Time - Newsdesk Media

Editor’s
Introduction
Frederick Kempe, President & CEO,
the Atlantic Council of the United States
History has never seen a more
powerful symbol for an era
than that provided by the
Berlin Wall during the
Cold War.
Communist forces did more than split
a city on August 13, 1961. They divided the
world. Berlin, with a population then of
3.3 million people, was Europe’s largest
metropolis between Paris and Moscow, so
the physical act of closing its border was
remarkable. The political significance of
constructing a 96-mile, concrete edifice
between the world’s two competing
systems – adorned with angry strands
of barbed wire and protected by guard
towers, attack dogs and border police with
shoot-to-kill orders – was staggering.
Many of the contributions in the pages
that follow address the many factors
that brought down the Wall some
28 years later. Former Secretary of State
Colin Powell reflects on the crucial
leadership of Presidents Ronald Reagan
and George H.W. Bush. Former National
Security Advisors Zbigniew Brzezinski
and Brent Scowcroft speak respectively
of the decisive roles of the Polish Pope
John Paul II and Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev. Others investigate the
role of matters ranging from military
containment to cultural invasion.
Most important, however, is how our
prominent contributors connect the dots
between the past and the future. General
James L. Jones, President Obama’s
National Security Advisor, speaks about
the need to confront a world of new
national security challenges that are more
complex and dangerous than those of
the Cold War. He warns that NATO must
fundamentally reform itself to address
new threats or it will become “a testimony
to the past but not much else.”
We at the Atlantic Council accept
freedom’s challenge, and that is why we
have as our mission the renewal of the
Atlantic Community for 21st-century
global challenges. It is also why we
introduced, in conjunction with this
publication, the Atlantic Council Freedom
Awards. Presented on November 8 in
Berlin at the Hotel Adlon, recipients
included U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton on
behalf of the American people, German
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle
on behalf of the German people, Berlin
Mayor Klaus Wowereit on behalf of
Berliners, and Admiral James Stavridis,
the Supreme Allied Commander Europe,
on behalf of NATO soldiers. We also
recognized Poland’s Lech Walesa and the
Czech Republic’s Vaclav Havel, perhaps
the period’s most prominent heroes, who
represent millions of others.
“The year 1989 was pivotal in the 20th
century and world history,” President
Obama writes in these pages. “The
lessons of 1989 are clear: democracy will
ultimately triumph over authoritarianism
and ordinary people can be powerful
agents for change.”
Our task at the Atlantic Council is to
help ensure that the legacy of that historic
year is carried forward across Europe and
for the world. It is in that vein that we
congratulate this year’s Freedom Awards
winners and thank the contributors to
Freedom’s Challenge.
Frederick Kempe is President and CEO
of the Atlantic Council of the United
States. If you would like to comment on
this editor’s note, on the Freedom Awards
or on any part of this publication, please
contact him at fkempe@acus.org.
18 The Atlantic Council