Trends in Society & Security – Thought Leaders Discussion at the Future Summit

It was a pleasure and inspiration discussing with other thought leaders future relevant trends in society and security. 

As follow-up to their keynotes and moderated by Stefanie Dreyer, the panel participants Daniel Kroos (OSCE – Organisation for Security and Collaboration in Europe), Steven Koleczko (DGC – Deutsche Gesellschaft für Cybersicherheit), Jay Tuck (Investigative Journalist) and Jochen Werne (Prosegur Germany & Prosegur Crypto) discussed impacts of technological changes on society and security. The panel took place during the 25th anniversary of the Hamburg@Work Future Summit on the historic freight ship Cap San Diego in the port of Hamburg and consisted of outstanding streams on digital future trends with Nils Müller – Trendone, political trends with Federal Minister Wolfgang Schmidt, Dr. Thomas Mirow – Senator ret. Hansestadt Hamburg, Dr. Carsten Brosda – Senator Hansestadt Hamburg, Prof. Henning Voepel – cep, Centrum für Europäische Politik, Thomas Fuchs – Hamburgische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit, technological trends with Dalits Steiger – SwissCognitive, Dr. Mira Wolf-Bauwens – IBM Research Europe  

Congratulations to the board and the team of Hamburg@Work under the leadership of Uwe-Jens Neumann for this outstanding achievement.

Details are available at: https://www.digitalcluster.hamburg/de/events/2022-09-22%2025th%20Anniversary%20SUMMIT-232933

Message of Condolence

We mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, who impressively dedicated her life to the service of people and the reconciliation of nations. Her Majesty was particularly supportive of third party international understanding initiatives, including on several occasions those of the Global Offshore Sailing Team. We join the people of the United Kingdom and all those around the world in mourning her loss. Her Majesty will always be gratefully remembered.

Jochen Werne on behalf of the Global Offshore Sailing Team

Keynote: Analog Battlefields and Cyberwarfare: Risk & Opportunities in a Changing World

Until recently, most of us in today´s modern societies had had the privilege of assuming that a “real” war is a relics of a bygone era. This has changed. War in Europe is real and Cyberwarfare has become an asymmetric battlefield aiming at destabilizing whole economies and societies. In his keynote, Jochen Werne will lead you through historical analogies and share his thoughts with you on what soon might be a new reality and how you should prepare.

Kuppinger Cole – Cybersecurity Leadership Summit 2022

Hybrid Event

November 08 – 10, 2022

in Berlin, Germany & Online

Keynote Session by Jochen Werne

Wednesday, November 09, 2022 16:20—16:40

Location: Historic Kassenhalle

From Antarctica to Artificial Intelligence

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE 100th ANNIVERSARY
of the Siemens Graduate Program

and thank you for the invitation to take a thought-provocing journey together from Antarctica to Artificial Intelligence.

A New Age of Enlightenment? Human Behaviour in the Light of New Technologies. From Antarctica to Artificial Intelligence, a human-made journey between madness and brilliance. By reflecting carefully human mankind’s past, we discover a quite schizophrenic story of partial madness and absolute brilliance, not only when it comes to the use of new technologies.

The talk will show how new technological approaches influenced visionary leaders in science, business and politics. The goal of the talk is to inspire the audience to understand and to take their role as leaders for change for good in their company as well as in society.

Next100 #SiemensGraduateProgram #Impact

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: Solving global challenges needs borderless international collaboration

With pride GOST (Global Offshore Sailing Team) collaborates since years with the Asociación para la Investigación y Difusión de la Historia Naval de Cuba. The latest collaboration with respect to Expedition Blue Ocean is a living example, that despite the political state of affairs, organisations strongly focused on supporting international understanding can be instrumental in solving challenges which cannot be solved within the borders of just one country. 

Excerpt from EL Faro, June 2022 – Author: Maximino Gomez Alvarez – translated with deepL

AIDHNC SUPPORTS EXPEDITION BLUE OCEAN AND COMBINES IT WITH THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE HEMINGWAY INTERNATIONAL YACHT CLUB OF CUBA”.

Despite the many difficulties faced, including the COVID 19 pandemic that we have been suffering for more than two years, the Association for Research and Dissemination of the Naval History of Cuba has not rested in its arduous work. 2022 has been an illustrative year of the progress made by this organisation, achieving great objectives in its growth and organisation. Several collaboration agreements have been signed, including one with the Hemingway International Sailing Club of Cuba, and support has also been given to various activities carried out by the prestigious international organisation Global Offshore Sailing Team.

Two events stood out in the month of May, Expedition Blue Ocean and the celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the creation of the Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba, in both activities the AIDHNC has been present.

In the case of the support given to the North Sea Endurance Expedition within the framework of the Blue Ocean event, several voyages were made, the one made by GOST, two others leaving from the port of Miami to Key West with the vessel La Caña (as the flagship of the AIDHNC) and another one made in Cuban waters to the north of the Province of Havana, with five vessels of the CNIHC. Thus, the flag of our organisation flew in the waters of the North Sea, until reaching the English coast, the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico and Cuba.

Extensive publicity work was carried out to publicise the Expedition Blue Ocean. Another of the activities programmed was a Children’s Drawing Competition with the slogan “For a clean and beautiful ocean” in greeting and support of the Blue Ocean Expedition and the 30th Anniversary of the CNIHC.

In the case of the Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba, with which a Collaboration Agreement had previously been signed, a complete collection of naval-themed works published by the AIDHNC was donated to this institution, and a Diploma of the AIDHNC was presented to Commodore José Miguel Díaz Escrich, who has directed this illustrious and renowned Cuban nautical institution since its foundation and up to the present day. Likewise, we supported the activities of celebration of the 30th Anniversary of this renowned Cuban Yacht Club, participating in the regatta held also in salute to this anniversary, as well as in the Reception held as a culmination of the activities held in the framework of these celebrations.

PEACE IS NOT A GIVEN

A generation that has experienced peace as the status quo might easily tend to forget that war has historically been more of a status quo than peace. Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute and historian Niall Ferguson’s books are full of examples. The long period of peace in historically hostile Europe was due to the hard work of visionary figures after the Second World War. They worked on a European concept of unity and cooperation. An idea that was unthinkable in the past but is a reality today. For all the shortcomings we may experience, it is of the utmost importance to always remember what a great goal has been achieved over such a long period of time: PEACE.

It would be of utmost importance to create even more initiatives like this as a basis for addressing the global challenges that lie ahead. Challenges that we can only solve on a global basis.

GOST has made it a priority to support INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING through its missions by teaching history and raising awareness of issues of global importance. We are proud to have achieved this again with Expedition Blue Ocean ( www.ExpeditionBlueOcen.org ).

The list of supporters is long and we would like to extend a special thank you to

  • The House of Lords
  • Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Boyce
  • The City of London
  • The Police of the City of London
  • The staff of the House of Lords
  • St. Katharine’s Dock Marina
  • Asociación para la Investigación y Difusión de la Historia Naval de Cuba
  • Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club
  • The Dover Harbour Board
  • Club Nautica Internacional de Hemingway Cuba
  • Maximino Gomez
  • Seaside Productions
  • Münz Corp.
  • Beach Cleaners
  • The Sea Cap Initiative

X-VOLUTION: Technologie und Gesellschaft – Ein Plädoyer für Aufklärung

Sascha Adam befragt im Schlußplädoyer die Teilnehmer des X-Volution Tech-Talks über ihre persönlichen Aussichten zum Thema technologischen Fortschritts und seinen Auswirkungen auf Wirtschaft, Unternehmen und unsere Gesellschaft.

Jochen Werne, Chief Visionary Officer von Prosegur German, Managing Director der Prosegur Crypto GmbH und mehrfach international ausgezeichnet für sein Engagement in International Relations antwortet mit Zuversicht und einer Reflexion für die internationale Politik.

Sascha Adam in his interview with Jochen Werne

In his closing statement, Sascha Adam asks the participants of the X-Volution Tech-Talk about their personal outlook on the topic of technological progress and its impact on the economy, companies and our society. Jochen Werne, Chief Visionary Officer of Prosegur German, Managing Director of Prosegur Crypto GmbH and winner of several international awards for his commitment to international relations, answers with confidence and a reflection for international politics.

Das gesamte Interview finden sie hier:

TIME of MISTRUST

A plea for trust in a time of mistrust. Trust is the foundation on which monetary systems are built. Trust forms the basis of international diplomatic relations and is the foundation for all progress.

But what happens once trust is shaken?

The diplomatic dispute over a multibillion-dollar submarine treaty – which took place three months before the Russian – Ukrainian war, concerns about a new cold war, and the collapse of the Bretton Woods system exactly 50 years ago are the manuscript for this maritime-themed French-American story about money and trust. It is an object lesson for our times, where we are witnessing the emergence of crypto-financial markets and thus stand on the threshold of a new form of money.

TIME OF MISTRUST

by Jochen Werne

After the traditional long summer vacation, France awakens in September from its brief self-created slumber, as it does every year. Life begins to take its usual course, even if some are still reminiscing, perhaps enjoying the first harbingers of post-Covid worry-free life. Not so Philippe Étienne. For him, on the other side of the Atlantic, in Washington, which is actually picturesque at this time of year, autumn begins with a diplomatic thunderstorm. A storm that must have been new even for the 65-year-old gray-haired eloquent ambassador of France. 6160 kilometers away, at the Élysée Palace, Président de la République Emmanuel Macron decides to call his top diplomat in the United States, along with his Australian counterpart Jean-Pierre Thebault, to Paris for consultations. The unprecedented act in Franco-American history is justified by Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian with the “exceptional gravity” of an Australian-British-American announcement, and impressively underlined with the words “lie,” “duplicity,” “disrespect” and “serious crisis.”

At the heart of this crisis is the surprise announcement by the aforementioned countries to enter into a strategic trilateral security alliance (AUKUS) with immediate effect. An alliance that also provides for the procurement of nuclear-powered submarines for Australia, effectively putting to rest a 56-billion-euro French-Australian submarine order already initiated in 2016. The conclusion of the agreement comes at a time when U.S. President Joe Biden has asserted to the UN General Assembly, “We do not seek – I repeat, we do not seek – a new cold war or a world divided into rigid blocs.” However, experts, such as renowned historian Niall Ferguson, have been talking about this so-called “new cold war” between the U.S. and China since 2019, and it is not about nuclear arms races, but rather about technology supremacy in cyber security, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Even though nuclear-powered submarines are at the center of the diplomatic dispute, one is quick to note in the AUKUS agreement that cooperation in the aforementioned fields is one of the most important components of the treaty. An objective that is perhaps also congruent with French interests. But the dispute between the old friends is less about the “what” than about the diplomatic “how” – that is, about the breach of trust that is triggered when close allies are simply presented with a fait accompli. Facts that also affect them financially and personally.

Because money and trust are closely interwoven. The trust of a bank that the creditor will repay its debts. A citizen’s trust that the currency in which he or she is paid their salaries is stable. A state’s trust in a currency system that the agreements made there will be honored by all. Georg Simmel, in his “Philosophy of Money,” sums it up this way: “Money is perhaps the most concentrated and pointed form and expression of trust in the social-state order.”

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of another French-American trust-busting melodrama with a maritime backdrop. Benn Steil, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, describes the moving events of August 6, 1971, in his book, The Battle of Bretton Woods, as follows: “…a congressional subcommittee issued a report entitled ‘Action Now to Strengthen the U.S. Dollar` that concluded, paradoxically, that the dollar needed to be weakened. Dollar dumping accelerated and France sent a warship to pick up French gold from the vaults of the New York Fed.”

At first glance, this dramatic gesture by then French President Georges Pompidou in the final act of the collapse of the Bretton Woods system seems as strange as the withdrawal of ambassadors today. The basis, however, is similar and lay then as now in an equally shaken trust between the great nations that were nevertheless so closely intertwined. Without going deeper into the new monetary order created after World War II, with the U.S. dollar as the anchor currency, it is important to understand the reason for the French revolt evident in the “White Plan.” The plan provided that the U.S. guaranteed the Bretton Woods participating countries the right to buy and sell gold indefinitely at the fixed rate of $35 per ounce. The dilemma of this arrangement became apparent early on. For by the end of the 1950s, dollar holdings at foreign central banks already exceeded U.S. gold reserves. When French President Charles de Gaulle asked the U.S. to exchange French dollar reserves for gold in 1966, the FED’s gold reserves were only enough for about half that amount. The ever more deeply anchored loss of confidence forced the American president Richard Nixon on August 15, 1971 to cancel the nominal gold peg and the so-called “Nixon shock” ended the system as it was.

And where something ends something new can or will inevitably begin.

Today we live in a world where the stability of our currency is based on our confidence in government fiscal policy, the economic strength of our country, and the good work of an independent central bank. However, we also live in a time when new currency systems are already looming on the dense horizon. The basis for this was laid in 2008, not surprisingly, by one of the most serious crises of confidence in the international banking system that modern times have seen. And the new systems are being implemented with the help of cutting-edge distributed ledger blockchain technology. The new, with its decentralized nature, is challenging the old. While many of the new currencies in the crypto world, such as bitcoin, are subject to large fluctuations, stablecoins promise a link and fixed exchangeability to an existing value, such as the US dollar or even gold. However, the old Bretton Woods challenge of being able to keep this promise at all times remains in the new world. Millions of dollars in penalties imposed by the New York Attorney General’s Office on the largest U.S. dollar stablecoin, Tether, for not being fully verifiable do little to help trust, especially when less than 3 percent of the market capitalization is actually deposited in U.S. dollar cash. As always with new ones, trust has to be built up. This can be done privately, perhaps with a stablecoin backed 100% by central bank money, or by the state, with well thought-out central bank digital currencies, such as the digital euro planned by the European Central Bank.

We live in a world of perpetual rapid change and trust is, as Osterloh describes it, “the will to be vulnerable.” Without trust, there are no alliances, no togetherness, no progress.

Philippe Étienne was back in autumnal Washington after just a few days and has since been working again on what diplomats are best trained for – building trust.

Sources

Billon-Gallan, A., Kundnani, H. (2021): The UK must cooperate with France in the Indo-Pacific. A Chatham House expert comment. https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/09/uk-must-cooperate-france-indo-pacific (Retrieved 24.9.2021)

Brien, J. (2021): “Stablecoin without stability”: Tether and Bitfinex pay $18.5 million fine. URL: https://t3n.de/news/stablecoin-tether-bitfinex-strafe-1358197/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=news (Retrieved: 9/30/2021).

Corbet, S. (2021): France recalls ambassadors to U.S., Australia over submarine deal. URL: https://www.pressherald.com/2021/09/17/france-recalls-ambassadors-to-u-s-australia-over-submarine-deal/ (Retrieved 9/25/2021).

Ferguson N. (2019): The New Cold War? It’s With China. And It Has Already Begun. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/opinion/china-cold-war.html (Retrieved: 9/30/2021).

Graetz, M., Briffault, O. (2016): A “Barbarous Relic”: The French, Gold , and the Demise of Bretton Woods. URL: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3545&context=faculty_scholarship p. 17 (Retrieved 9/25/2021).

Osterloh, M., Weibel, A. (2006): Investing trust. Processes of trust development in organizations, Gabler: Wiesbaden.

Steil, B. (2020): The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the new world, p. 377.

Stolze, D. (1966): Does de Gaulle defeat the dollar? In ZEIT No. 36/1966. URL: (https://www.zeit.de/1966/36/besiegt-de-gaulle-den-dollar/komplettansicht (Retrieved: 9/26/2021)

The Guardian Editorial (2021): The Guardian view on Biden’s UN speech: cooperation not competition URL: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/22/the-guardian-view-on-bidens-un-speech-cooperation-not-competition(Retrieved: 9/29/2021)

Unal, B., Brown, K., Lewis, P., Jie, Y. (2021): Is the AUKUS alliance meaningful or merely a provocation – A Chatham House expert comment. URL: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/09/aukus-alliance-meaningful-or-merely-provocation (Retrieved: 9/24/2021).

Time Online (2021): France sees relationship in NATO strained. URL: https://www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2021-09/u-boot-deal-frankreich-australien-usa-streit-nato-jean-yves-le-drian?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fmeine.zeit.de%2F (Retrieved: 9/25/2021)

International Understanding: Messenger of a dispatch from the House of Lords

London, May 16, 2022 It was a great honor to receive an invitation to the House of Lords from the Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Boyce, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. The hospitality extended during this visit will be unforgettable. The members of the Global Offshore Sailing Team are very grateful to Lord Boyce for the opportunity to gain an insight into the daily operations and passion with which the honorable members of the House of Lords conduct their debates. As a special end to the visit, Lord Boyce presented the Expedition Blue Ocean Corps of the Global Offshore Sailing Team with a special despatch to be sailed by sea from London to Dover – celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club. The mission was successfully completed with the delivery of the shipment to RCPYC Commodore Judith White on May 18. The welcome for the crew in Dover was beyond compare. Special thanks are due to the members of the RCPYC, not only for their extraordinary cordiality, but especially for their untiring efforts for international understanding.

Handover of the dispatch to the Global Offshore Sailing Team – Westminster Hall – House of Parliament, London
Handover of the dispatch to the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club Dovery
The Global Offshore Sailing Team as guest of the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club Dover
Expedition Blue Ocea on sea
Benon Janos (Chief Security Officer) and Jochen Werne (Skipper) on watch during Expedition Blue Ocean

International Understanding: VETERANS CALL FOR PEACE & RECONCILIATION

Six years ago, World War II veterans proclaimed a message that everyone should have heard and that is more important today and every day that comes.

Jochen Werne, Co-Founder mission4peace

‘Message to the World’ – DECLARATION OF NATIONS RECONCILIATION

For the first time in the history of international relations the Second World War veterans and diplomats representing several countries met on Sunday 8 May in Hamburg (Germany) for the signing of the Declaration of Nations Reconciliation.

The event ‘Message to the World’, held within the framework of the international project mission4peace, was attended by veterans from Germany, Great Britain, Russia, the USA, the Netherlands, Italy and Serbia.

The veterans and guests have been greeted by the International Maritime History Museum Hamburg. The party was addressed by the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium H.E. Ghislain D’Hoop. The event has been coordinated by the founders of mission4peace and organisers of ‘Message to the World’ event Eugene Kasevin (Ukraine) and Jochen Werne (Germany).

The veterans addressed the auditorium with personal messages and appealed to all countries and their leaders to maintain peaceful relations between nations regardless of cultural, religious and ideological differences. Following the official part of the event, veterans and guests released white doves from the roof of the historical museum as a sign of remembrance, reconciliation and peaceful coexistence of all peoples.

“One of the main goals of the mission4peace project is to bring together and unite forward-looking people who share the conviction that peaceful human coexistence can be achieved through the perseverance of intellectual and intercultural exchange while accepting differences. The “Message to the World” event is designed to allow veterans to share their messages and show that we are capable of overcoming the most deeply rooted historical resentments. In this case, it is the inherited resentments between people and nations that participated in the Second World War, which continue to be an obstacle in politics and trade, in the social sphere and in the everyday lives of ordinary people.”

Eugene Kasevin, Co-Founder mission4peace


One of the most influential British military leaders, the former Chief of the Defence Staff and Head of the British Armed Forces, General Lord David Richards of Herstmonceux GCB CBE DSO commented:

“At a time of considerable international tension, mission4peace is a timely and thought provoking initiative that deserves the attention and support of us all.”