Moments in Munich
By Dr. Jackson Janes

Any given week will provide many opportunities for those engaged in transatlantic travel to attend conferences, meetings and seminars, often bringing the same people together to discuss what they were just talking about somewhere else the week before. In most cases, the role of such meetings is to provide a platform for presentations which remain among the participants.   A few, however, serve as a Kodak moment for the public at large, staged to take the public pulse of issues on the agenda.
 
Certain cities have become synonymous with such stages, be it a small mountain village in Switzerland or a southern German town. For more than four decades Munich has been the site of an annual conference which provides a weekend for leaders of the world to state their views, arguments and exhortations about the measures of security and related issues. It provides a stage on which the main actors have their soliloquies presented and then dissected by all those present in order to divine the meanings of the messages.
 
In most instances, the messages are expected, reconfirmations of what was known beforehand. Yet there are occasions when something unexpected happens. In 2003, there was an exchange between then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and the former German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joschka Fischer, about the approaching war in Iraq. "I'm sorry. I am not convinced." said Fischer to Rumsfeld's declaration of evidence concerning Iraq. It was an unexpected moment within the transatlantic community which captured in public something very real, very candid and very much representing what was at stake.
 
Something similar happened last weekend in Munich. This time the President of Russia had his moment on the stage, in fact the first moment any leader of Russia has ever had within the conference series. Vladimir Putin came loaded for bear, and no one knew to expect it.
 
The content of his speech was a resounding criticism of the United States, NATO expansion and a warning that Russia should not be taken for granted. It was also a reminder that Russia sees itself as a major global player with the power to back it up. Despite the fact that Putin labeled the world as unipolar, without specifically mentioning the United States, he was effectively chastising Washington for being arrogant, clumsy and dangerous.
 
To whom was he speaking beyond those in Munich? Certainly he was sending a message to those back home in Russia, signaling how important Russia is and also how Russia takes a back seat to no one. With his term as President coming to a close next year - and the constitution stipulating that he cannot be reelected for a third term (unless he changes it) - Putin certainly is playing to a public which supports him, adding to his ability to shape the future even out of office.
 
He was also sending a message to the Europeans about his concerns at a time when Russian influence can be exercised increasingly through the energy it is supplying to them. Complaining about the expansion of NATO to the borders of Russia, he was ignoring the fact that the new NATO members in Eastern Europe had made their own decisions to join up with an eye on the future and their previous experience with the Soviet Union. But he cast the issue in a question asking against whom NATO and its policies is directed. Without answering, it was clear that he was suggesting that Russia is offended.
 
Finally, he was directing his criticism at Washington and its policies, while maintaining that George W. Bush is his friend. The newly appointed Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, listened to Putin and then gently and elegantly dismissed most of it by stating that Russia and the U.S. share more concerns than they are divided by. Other Americans were more critical of Putin's comments, some suggesting it sounded like the rhetoric of Cold War days.
 
Yet, the intriguing question was why he had decided to let loose in Munich.
 
The shared consensus was that he was taking advantage of a very public stage on which he reckoned with many people agreeing with him and his criticism of American policies. In fact, many comments reflected that. It was seen by the leader of the SPD, Kurt Beck, as an "open and honest speech". Yet it seemed to be more calculated than clear. Could he benefit from a situation in which the status of the U.S. on the world stage is at an historical nadir? It would seem so. According to public opinion polls, over two thirds of the Germans agreed with Putin's comments. Even American pundits picked up on the sources of Russian anger, blaming the heavy-handed and clumsy tactics of the neo-cons in Washington for the problems Putin pointed at.
 
While the response in Washington was more muted than Putin's speech, the measure of its importance could also be seen in the media coverage. The European press in general and the German media in particular were absorbed with the Russian President's purposes for days afterwards, whereas the U.S. press gave it a once over and then moved back to Iraq , North Korea, Iran, etc. One should also note that the speech was picked by Al jazeera which made certain that Putin's visit to the Middle East after the conference would be framed by his criticism of the U.S.
 
The fact is that American or German relations with Russia will be driven by the same issues which were on the table before the Munich conference, some of which will offer common ground and some which will generate conflict.  Putin himself pointed at the Iranian nuclear ambitions as something he also cannot understand while complaining about NATO policies. In that sense, the world was not transformed by Putin's speech any more than by others presented at the conference in Munich. Yet they all offered a chance to take a reality check as to where we all find ourselves and see ourselves in the pursuit of global responsibility for global crises. The Munich conference reminded us again that this pursuit can seen very differently around the world.
 
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This essay appeared in the February 16, 2007, AICGS Advisor.

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Want to know more? Check out these links for more information.

Speeches at the 43rd International Security Conference in Munich

Von wegen Kalter Krieg, By Josef Joffe, Die Zeit, February 15, 2007.

Die Blinden sehen wieder, By Clemens Wergin, Der Tagesspiegel, February 16, 2007.

Our Strange Devotion to the Kremlin, By Anne Applebaum, The Washington Post, February 20, 2007.