Hubertus Hoffmann

Hubertus Hoffmann is president and founder of the World Security Network (WSN). On the WSN website Hoffmann is described as a "German entrepreneur and geostrategist"."Dr. Hubertus Hoffmann", WSN website, accessed February 2009. 
His WSN biography states he has worked as advisor in the European Parliament (Office of Prof. Hans-Gert Poettering, now President of the European Parliament), the German Bundestag (Parl. State Secretary of Defense Peter Kurt Wuerzbach MP) and with the U.S. Senate (Sam Nunn, Gary Hart) in defence affairs for many years. He was a Research Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Georgetown University (1983-84), and also worked as a journalist in the White House Press Corps and as an editor in ZDF, the largest TV station in Europe. Hoffmann holds a PhD in political science with "summa cum laude" and is a lawyer and a reserve officer in the German Army. Dr. Hubertus Hoffmann President and Founder World Security Network Foundation, WSN website, accessed 14 September 2008
Hoffmann is co-founder of the General Capital Group which invested €3.3 bn in companies that include Volkswagen, BASF, Thyssen Krupp and Lanxess. Members of its board have connections to Morgan Stanley, IBM, GEC ALSTHOM, Perot Systems Corporation USA, Textron USA, Siemens, Axel Springer and Allianz AG. http://www.gencap.de/page_nonav.aspxPage3d169494-8e41-4245-9b2e-9b6391919560.htm
The biography states:
:Hoffmann has from 1979 to 1983 supported NATO’s Two Track Decision to deploy medium range nuclear weapons in Europe combined with mutual arms reductions on the Russian side which put him on the target list of RAF, the German terrorist organization. In 1978 he founded a popular German appeal (Dattelner Appell) to dismantle the new Russian SS-20 missiles and to combine it with the non-deployment of NATO Pershing II and Cruise Missiles, which was signed by more than 100 members of the German Bundestag, U.S. Senators like Edward Kennedy and others, which was on December 12, 1979 successfully integrated into NATO's Two Track Decision and later into the INF Treaty. In 1980 he initiated a CDU/CSU resolution and Federal Law of the Bundestag for an Annual Report on Arms Control and Disarmament, which since than is published by the German Goverment. Dr. Hubertus Hoffmann President and Founder World Security Network Foundation, WSN website, accessed 14 September 2008
Hoffmann's biography also states that he was Chairman of the Christian-Democratic (CDU) Committee for Foreign, Defense, European and Inner German Affairs and active in promoting the German re-unification and a strong NATO, adding that:
:In 1984 Dr. Hoffmann organized the exchange program for young reserve officers from the U.S.A. and Germany with the support of than Parl. State Secretary of Defense Peter Kurt Wuerzbach. He was a German member of the Executive Committee of the NATO Reserve Officers Association CIOR. He supported the Mudjahedin from 1985-1990 against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, visiting them in the mountains in 1985 and writing the Afghanistan report for the European Parliament. In 2002 at Friedrichruh Palace near Hamburg, Fürst Ferdinand von Bismark bestowed upon Dr. Hubertus Hoffmann the "Bismark Medal in Silver with Golden Oak Leaves" for his "patriotic faithfulness and proven Prussian national consciousness". Dr. Hubertus Hoffmann President and Founder World Security Network Foundation, WSN website, accessed 14 September 2008
==Mentor: Fritz Kraemer==
Hoffmann's long-time mentor was Fritz Kraemer, who was given to advising world leaders: "No provocative weakness, please!" (See Fritz Kraemer). The idea that military weakness provokes attack is an idea that Hoffmann has embraced in his own philosophy.Hubertus Hoffmann, "Sheikh Yassin, Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler: Appeasement and Provocative Weakness", WSN website, accessed February 2009.
==World Security Network==
The New York-based World Security Network has been described in a speaker note profile of Hoffman as "the largest global elite network for foreign and security policy with the purpose of 'Networking a Safer World'."Hubertus Hoffmann, Women as Global Leaders website, accessed February 2009. The same source states that:
:WSN has two goals: Networking of the young elite via the Internet and promoting international discussion of fresh solutions and proposals. Young authors can publish their own analyses worldwide, and a network of 59 mostly young editors with 27 nationalities report from all over the world. The International Advisory Board consists of 53 well-known experts from 15 countries, including 14 generals and admirals. More than 303,000 members of the international information elite receive the weekly electronic newsletter; 158 media partners (including CNN, UPI and Newsweek) and 85 institutes (including RAND and IISS,) World Security Network website, cooperate with WSN and make use of the analyses.
The WSN website tells us what WSN is notLetter from the President and Founder, accessed 14 September 2008:
:# not American, Asian or European: we are the largest global-elite action network for foreign and defense affairs—focussing on the young, new elite of the world
:# not left or right, not U.S. Republican or U.S. Democrat or an adherent to any other party-line: it is an independent, international and pluralistic non-profit organization.
:# not a peace movement or an organization of warmongers: it promotes a realistic and credible balance of Realpolitik and Idealpolitik, of power and diplomacy, of necessary military actions and reconciliation—a Double Strategy of solid and realistic peacemaking
:# not academic: it is solution-oriented, looking for concrete proposals for all conflicts
:# not bureaucratic: we are creative and action-oriented, like businessmen
:# not fanatical: we are engaged global citizens with the vision of networking a safer and better world for our children 
The organisation's goals are stated as:
:* Networking the young global elite in foreign and defense affairs
:* Providing fresh analysis, ideas, and visions for the world's most pressing problems
:* Promoting designs for a safer world in politics, media and academia."Hubertus Hoffmann, World Security Network: Why you should join as a prominent supporter now!", WSN website, accessed February 2009.
This is coupled with the disclaimer that:
:We do not want to leave the important area of foreign and defense affairs to a few extremists, the mediocre majority of politicians and bureaucrats, and primarily backwards-looking analysts without an action orientation. WSN promotes timely actions to implement double peace strategies: power on one side, diplomacy and reconciliation on the other. The World Security Network's broad action approach considers all three levels required to resolve a conflict: visions, structures, and actions. These must include innovative master plans, sufficient funding, and rapid implementation."Hubertus Hoffmann, World Security Network: Why you should join as a prominent supporter now!", WSN website, accessed February 2009.
Taken together, WSN executives have connections to the following organisations: the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Royal College of Defence Studies, the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS),Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Hanns Seidel Foundation, Kissinger McLarty Associates, The Company Agency, The Institute of World Politics, Human Rights Watch, NATO, DFI International Security Consultants, Center for International Security and Cooperation, the Düsseldorf Institute for Foreign and Security Policy, the German Marshall Fund of the US, the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, the U.S. State Department, the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, the United States Army, Cicero Foundation, Atlantic Council, International Center for Human Development, the International Republican Institute, the Center of International Politics and Transatlantic Relations, Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research, UN Office of the Humanitarian Coordination for Iraq, Research Institute for European and American Studies, the Institute for International Policy, the German Israeli Association of Political Scientists."Executives", WSN website, accessed February 2009.
WSN has 59 Advisory Board members from 19 nations containing 16 generals and admirals."Letter from the President and Founder", WSN website, accessed February 2009.
==Atlanticist connections==
Hoffmann has many AtlanticistAtlanticism is a philosophy of cooperation among Western European and North American nations (specifically the United States and Canada) regarding political, economic, and defense issues. affiliations. His WSN biography says he is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) (Rhine Chapter)."Dr. Hubertus Hoffmann, President and Founder, World Security Network Foundation", WSN website, accessed February 2009. The YPO is an organization made up of company presidents from around the world. The YPO ties in with Jim Warner's OnCourse International YPO retreats"OnCourse International YPO / WPO Offerings", OnCourse International website, accessed February 2009. See the OnCourse International website for some interesting speakers.For example, "Richard Marcinko, Rogue Warrior", OnCourse International website, accessed February 2009.
Founded by Ray Hickok in 1950, the YPO is a millionaires' club to put their young in touch with the global elite."Milestones", YPO website, accessed February 2009. It has ties to the Aspen Institute, which 
:offers a variety of programs to YPO members that serve leaders from many different fields... Leaders leave better prepared to manage relationships with diverse constituencies, conduct business in a global environment and motivate followers through visions that unite and inspire."Alliances", YPO website, accessed February 2009.
Hoffmann is also a member of the International institute for Strategic Studies in London, a Konrad Adenauer Foundation scholar and a Young Atlantic Leader (1992) with Atlantik-Brücke (a Berlin-based organisation founded in 1952 with the stated aim of promoting German-American understanding after World War II)."History and organization", Atlantik-Brücke website, accessed February 2009. 
In 1959, the American Council on Germany (ACG), in collaboration with the Atlantik-Brücke, initiated the American-German Biennial Conferences. At these conferences, high-level German and American opinion shapers and policymakers from academia, business, government, media, and the military meet to discuss the major bilateral and international issues of the day and how to make money out of them. Among the ACG founders were General Lucius Clay, Christopher Emmet, Ellen Z. McCloy, and Eric M. Warburg. John J. McCloy, the first civilian U.S. High Commissioner in Germany following the war, was the founding Chairman and continued to serve until 1987."History", American Council on Germany website, accessed February 2009.
The ACG website also states that the conferences were conceived and initiated by the venture capitalist and computer pioneer John Diebold, "who also served as Vice Chairman of the American Council on Germany", in collaboration with Christopher Emmet, who became its full-time director."History", American Council on Germany website, accessed February 2009. Diebold started John Diebold Inc., an investment firm, in 1967.
Diebold also started the Diebold Institute for Public Policy Studies, Inc., which was in the advance guard for neo-liberalism. This how the Institute's approach to spreading privatization was described on its website in 2007:
:In undertaking its early work on privatization, the Institute proceeded, as always, on the assumption that a small think tank such as the Diebold Institute, must focus on reaching leadership groups rather than a general audience. The Ford Foundation, with the direct and personal intervention and encouragement of its President McGeorge Bundy, provided substantial initial outside financing of the Institute's work on privatization during the early seventies.[...] Somewhat later the British Institute of Directors also requested presentation of a paper at their annual Albert Hall meeting which occurred on the eve of Mrs. Thatcher's election to the premiership. The reaction of this audience was overwhelmingly positive. Years later, in a speech, Lord King credited Diebold with having introduced the term "privatization" to Great Britain. "Work on Privatization", Diebold Institute for Public Policy Studies website, archived version of 1 January 2007, accessed February 2009.
According to a book by Zack Carden, John Diebold offered Henry F. Sherwood the directorship of the Diebold Research Program-Europe, and while there Sherwood became an undercover agent for the CIA.Zack Carden, The Secret Files of Henry F. Sherwood: ...a comprehensive biography of a pioneer computer genius, and CIA spy, iUniverse, Inc., 2005.
== Tales of Hoffmann ==
Hoffman writes of Al Qaida on the WSN website:
:Only 65 years after its worst diplomatic mistake that cost more than 50 million people their lives - the appeasement of Adolf Hitler at the Munich Conference – Europe is about to make the same mistake again, now in response to the terrorist threat of our time.Hubertus Hoffmann, "Sheikh Yassin, Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler: Appeasement and Provocative Weakness", WSN website, 23 March 2004, accessed February 2009.
He adds:
:In a 42-page document obtained by the Research Institute of the Norwegian Ministry of Defense in December 2003, Al Qaida wrote that Spain is the weakest ally of the US in Iraq. The document noted that terror in Spain would lead to withdrawal of her troops and that an attack would be most effective before election day. After only two to three attacks, "Spain would give up its engagement in Iraq," Al Qaida wrote. Congratulations Osama bin Laden! You got what you wanted from the new Spanish Prime Minister! Perfect targets and perfect timing too! It is worth bombing innocent people in Europe, it moves their weak democratic leaders to give-in and appease Al Qaida!Hubertus Hoffmann, "Sheikh Yassin, Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler: Appeasement and Provocative Weakness", WSN website, 23 March 2004, accessed February 2009.
Hoffmann cites the Norwegian government document as saying, "more countries will follow [Spain]". This leads him to the conclusion that:
:Therefore, Mr. Zapatero is personally responsible when other allies of the US in Iraq get under attack. By "provocative weakness," he is provoking those attacks like Chamberlain did with Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938.
Also described by Hoffmann as "another 'Munich of Our Time' act" was:
:The EU statement ... calling the killing of Sheikh Yassian “extra-judicial” and criticizing Israel for the elimination of the spiritual leader and founder of the terrorist group Hamas...
The article is accompanied by a photograph of Hoffman with Donald Rumsfeld and Inspector General Joe Schmitz in the Pentagon (opposite). 
Some of Hoffmann's writings are exercises in retrospective thinking. For instance, one states "Could 9/11 have been avoided? The answer is a clear and sound: YES! How?" 
The answer is given as:
:in 1998, the appropriate and necessary U.S. action should have been to wipe out bin Laden’s infrastructure by permanent and massive covert and military actions starting in 1998 to 2001.Hubertus Hoffmann, "9/11 could have been avoided, but only very soon starting 1998!", WSN website, accessed February 2009.
He also asks, "Who is to blame for this?" and answers, "CIA Director George Tenet is one of them."Hubertus Hoffmann, "9/11 could have been avoided, but only very soon starting 1998!", WSN website, accessed February 2009.
==Resources==
See also Fritz Kraemer. Kraemer was Hoffmann's mentor for 25 years and Hoffmann wrote a book about him. 
WSN's website includes WSN-TV WSN TV, where you can watch its experts and Hoffmann himself.
==Affiliations==
*Henry Jackson Society - International Patron
== References ==