Wirken in Wendezeiten / Impacting in times of change - 40 years Mid-Atlantic Clubs (ed. Martina Timmermann, 2.ed. Kovac: Hamburg 2017)

"Wirken in Wendezeiten - 40 Jahre Mid-Atlantic Clubs" was originally started at the occasion of the London Mid-Atlantic Club's 40th anniversary in 2011. The first of several clubs in Europe and the United States of America had been a brainchild of Heinz Walter Lessing and James Robert Huntley. They "cooked it up" on a walk through the woods in Guildford near London in 1970. German Chancellor Willi Brand's "Ostpolitik" had caused concern and demand for direct personal exchange among transatlantic security experts. The "Mid-Atlantic Club of London" was formally installed in 1971. At about the same time, Dr Friedhelm Krüger-Sprengel (German Ministry of Defense) was one of the first German Marshall fellows a the Wilson Center in Washington D.C. Ben Reid and some others suggested to start a similar luncheon club for informal but open talks also in the German capital Bonn. After a few more years in disarmament negotiations in Vienna, Friedhelm Krüger-Sprengel returned to Bonn and picked the topic up again.

On 23 June 1977, the first German Mid-Atlanti(k!) Club was founded in Bonn. Founding members were Dr Peter Corterier, Consul General Rupert Dirnecker, Ambassador Walter Truckenbrodt, Ursula Fischbach-Wilke (German Atlantic Society), Dr Krueger-Sprengel (founding secretary), MP Dr Alois Mertes, MP Juergen W. Moellemann, Gebhardt Walther (DGAP), and Andrew Carter (British Diplomat).

40 years and over 200 luncheon talks later, on 23 June 2017, the MAC Bonn celebrated its 40th founding anniversary - a date, btw, that has gained more prominence for another reason: it happens to also be the date of the British referendum in 2016.

In honor of the two visionaries in the United States and Britain, and the lifetime commitment of the drivers of the MACs in Bonn and London, and in order to pay adequate attention to the fundamental changes and challenges we are facing these days, the first edition of 2013 has been updated and extended. It was launched in Bonn on 24 June 2017.

New authors include the President of the European Investment Bank, Dr Werner Hoyer; MP Roderich Kiesewetter; MP Dr Claudia Luecking-Michel; the President of the Clausewitz-Society, Lieutenant General ret. Kurt Herrmann; Permanent Under Secretary of the FCO, Sir Simon McDonald, KCMG KCVO; U.S. NATO expert Dr Ira Straus and former U.S. Diplomat and President of the Atlantic Council US, James Robert Huntley. Authors of the first edition have updated their articles, such as the former President of the German Intelligence Service (BND) Dr Hans-Georg Wieck, State Sec. ret. Dr Lothar Ruehl, State Sec. ret. Friedhelm Ost, MAC Bonn VP Dr Friedhelm Krüger-Sprengel.

The result is testament to the unbroken relevance of the MACs as informal platforms for testing new visions via open but informal exchange - with courage and full commitment for the cause of increasing mutual understanding and confidence in each other.