- February 17, 2017
On February 17, 2017, the Aspen Institute Germany and its board member Prof. Dr. Gunther Hellmann of the Goethe University Frankfurt hosted a high-level off-the-record lunch and discussion at the 2017 Munich Security Conference addressing the question of whether or not strategic planning is still possible in an age of uncertainty and upheaval. The lunch included impulse statements by Charlie Kupchan, former Senior Director for Europe at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama, and Kurt Volker, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO under President George W. Bush. Following these presentations, the participants discussed the role of domestic politics in driving foreign policy decision-making, the role of strategic planning institutions, the general purpose of strategies as well as possible barriers to the development of strategies.
