Naumann-Networks
2009/07/13
Executives
The Friedrich-Naumann Foundation's International Academy for Leadership (IAF) was established in the early 1990s and is, since 1995, located at the Foundation's Theodor Heuss Academy in Gummersbach in Germany's North Rhine-Westphalia. The target groups include local employees of the foundation's regional overseas offices as well as those of partner organizations, but particularly "eminent leaders and multipliers from politics, the economy, science, the media and the security sector." The academy is particularly courting "young leaders from liberal parties" all around the world. The IAF offers seminars covering several weeks, workshops and informational tours while initiating talks in Germany and other European countries with "political parties and associations at enterprises, organisations and projects" but also at government levels. The discussion topics include economics, the media and issues of security.[1]
Strategy and Implementation
The academy distinguishes between various activities depending on the specific purpose. Whereas conferences for think tanks and other "eminent leaders" are expected to provide "new impulses and possible solutions for central questions in terms of world politics," the seminars "for leaders" clearly focus on concrete projects. With the "management level" of foreign parties, media, administration, the judiciary or the military, the IAF is seeking the "creation of liberal development and social and economic political concepts." Another main focus "lies in the strategic implementation planning of existing concepts" based on the respective "requirements in the project countries." The programs provide an opportunity for "the building of multinational bridges and the creation of new levels of contacts," explains the Naumann-Foundation regarding the new opportunities to win influence.[2]
Internet
The academy is focusing particularly on the creation of alumni networks among former participants in its programs. Besides the traditional networking, between the foundation's regional offices, the academy is increasingly using the internet to link up foreign elites. Participants of IAF programs are not only being prepared through online-seminars for courses and information tours in Germany. Subsequent to their participation in a seminar in Gummersbach, they will have the opportunity of joining a "global network on specific themes." The discussions in these online forums will not only be carried out in English but also in Spanish - a clear indication of the foundations primary focus on Latin America.[3]
Eminent Advisors
The work of the Nauman-Foundation in Latin America is currently drawing attention, because the FDP affiliated organization has conspicuously been supporting the Honduran putschists. Their party, the Partido Liberal de Honduras (PLH), is closely cooperating with this German foundation, and several of the foundation's IAF alumni had already been named ministers and vice ministers before the putsch (german-foreign-policy.com reported [4]). Even though the Naumann Foundation has contact to numerous IAF alumni In Mexico, it has not been quite as successful there. The alumni include the chairman of the liberal Nueva Alianza Party's caucus in Mexico City's municipal parliament, a law professor, who has been drafting a constitution for the Federal District of Mexico City, ministry functionaries, parliamentarians and "lawyers in eminent government advisory positions."[5] Balbina Flores, the "Reporters without Borders" Mexico correspondent is also among the IAF alumni.
Opinion Makers
The foundation's networking is not limited to Latin America. In Pakistan, it can rely on about 100 alumni, it is trying to bring together in the FreedomGate Pakistan (FGP) network, among them, the former director of an influential "National Reconstruction Bureau" government agency and a prominent TV moderator. FreedomGate Pakistan began to organize its own seminars, in cooperation with the IAF. "FreedomGate Pakistan, the network of liberal thinkers, is slowly developing into a think tank, supporting liberal ideas in Pakistan," according to the academy.[6] A similar development can be registered by the Naumann Foundation in Malaysia, where IAF alumni are also organizing their own seminars in cooperation with the academy "to share knowledge and practical work experience with fellow citizens working in the fields of politics and human rights."[7]
On all Continents
The networking of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation's "International Academy for Leadership" is spanning all continents linking a growing number of the urban elites to the German state financed organization. In some countries, such as Honduras, the foundation has its connections all the way up into the government. The number of people who have had close contact to the academy, provides an idea of its significance. According to the foundation, "more than 4000 participants from all regions of the world, have already passed through the IAF."[8]
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