Mißfelder Named Coordinator for Transatlantic Cooperation

Nicholas Iaquinto

Nicholas Iaquinto was previously the Communications Coordinator / Web Developer at AICGS.

This week, CDU politician Philipp Mißfelder was named Coordinator for Transatlantic Cooperation in the Field of Intersocietal Relations, Cultural and Information Policy, a position within the Federal Foreign Office. Taking over for FDP member Harald Leibrecht, who has held this post since July 2011, Mißfelder will serve as the new Grand Coalition’s primary liaison with the United States on economic and diplomatic partnership and also promote cooperation among businesses and other non-governmental institutions in Germany and abroad.

A frequent guest at AGI, Mißfelder was interviewed in 2012 by AGI President Jackson Janes to discuss Germany’s—and Chancellor Merkel’s—role in the European project. Emphasizing the complexity of the European Union’s economic troubles, Mißfelder argued that there is no easy solution to the euro crisis and that Germany is in the strongest position to lead. He also discussed the crisis in Syria and the confrontation with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

Concluding on the topic of European-level foreign and security policy, Mißfelder commented,

European history after the Second World War shows that always, when Europe is in a crisis or under pressure, it was a time, when we came closer together. I think it would have been much more difficult to achieve all of this progress, for example the fiscal compact, without this crisis.