To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
Ambassador Dr. Klaus Scharioth presented his credentials as German Ambassador to the United States on March 13, 2006. Prior, from 2002 until 2006, Mr. Scharioth served as State Secretary, the highest civil service post in the German Foreign Office. During the time of Germany's reunification, he was posted to the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations in New York (from 1986 to 1990) and from 1990 to 1993, Mr. Scharioth worked in the International Law Division of the German Foreign Office.
Dr. Elisabeth von Thadden is a literary editor at the German weekly DIE ZEIT. After the Berlin Wall was fallen, she worked for the East German weekly Wochenpost. She is a member of the board of the German Protestant Kirchentag. Currently, she is a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Center for European Studies.