71-year-old diplomat to replace Yerenelli in Germany

Amy Gutmann could bring new breath into transatlantic relations between the US and Germany, which is very necessary currently. President Joe Biden has officially announced that she, Amy Gutmann, will be the next American ambassador to Berlin. Gutmann will start working after confirming her appointment by the American Senate. So 71-year-old will be the first woman to hold the post.

Her style is quite different from that of the previous ambassador: Richard Green, the loyal man of Trump, who was regarded as aggressive and impulsive. In June 2020, he left the post and went to Washington as director of the secret service. It's been a year since Berlin has no US ambassador. Her duty was performed by the diplomat, Robin Quinville.

Democratic Value

Amy Gutmann has struggled during her academic career to harmonise political theory and practice to highlight the values and morals of a democratic society. In these efforts she was able to gain so much influence that Fortune magazine classified her to the list of the world's „50 greatest leaders”.

In Gutmann's biography you can read what its ideals and priorities are. Being a political professor at the University of Princeton, she established a specialised moral institution called University Center for Human Waves, the University Centre for Human Values. While the US president was Barack Obama, Gutmann headed the Commission for the Study of Bioethic Affairs. It has been running the University of Pennsylvania since 2004. It has written a lot about the values of education and its reflection in democracy, written pros and contradicted the identity policy, as well as the role of morality in public and political affairs.

In view of these things, you can say that Beden's decision to appoint Gutmann to this post suits the maximum he supports, to strengthen democracy worldwide. Even Julian Müller-Caler from the German Foreign Policy Association, Deutsche Geselschaft für Auswärtice Polittic, thinks her choice fits confidence: „The guidance she has had in the academic work of democracy, shows that Biden is serious with efforts to make democracy together, especially those of Europe in an anttagonist policy against China,<x1 writes in response to a question by Deutsche Welle.

Gutmann has a good relationship with Beden. In 2017 it opened the Penn -Beden Center for diplomacy and global engagement in Washington, a diplomacy center, foreign policy, and national security dialogue.

Personal Link With Germany

It will now need to test its diplomatic skills even in the area of foreign policy. Gutmann brings with him a biographic reference to Germany: Her father, Kurt, comes from a conservative Jewish family from Nuremberg. When Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, he was a student. A year later he fled with his family, first going to India and then to New York, where Amy Gutmann was born.

In 2013, she told the university paper “The Daily Pennsylvania” that her father's experience in national-Social Germany had “enormous impact on her. The entire family would have disappeared if it hadn't escaped. ”

New Beginning in Transatlantic Relations

Since taking office in January, President Biden is trying to resume transatlantic relations and repair the damage caused during Donald Trump's four years. The question is what role I can play in this with Amy Gutmann.

“Gutmann represents the Biden government and is close to Beden,” says of Deutsche Welle Sudha David-Wilp, deputy director of the German Marshall Fund organisation's Berlin office. But regaining trust will not be easy: “The problem lies with the German public opinion and the belief they have in the United States. At this point, the new ambassador must roll his sleeves and show the Germans that the US views Germany as important partners. Some things will no longer be the same, but transatlantic relations are important both for the stability of Europe and the US.”

There are also issues the parties disagree on, and Gutmann has to deal with from the start, especially with the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline that is about to end up building, which will bring Russian gas directly to Germany. There are other topics of conflict waiting to be resolved by Gutmann: “First is the still unresolved topic of customs between Europe and the US. Then of course, the China theme is a theme that makes us all together, but it divides us,” says David-Wilp. True, Gutmann has little diplomatic experience, David-Wilp says, but her „intellectual capacity” promises to make her a good ambassador.

In Julian Müller-Kaler's view, China's proper treatment will continue to remain an important topic in transatlantic relations. “Despite the recent tensions, Berlin prefers a less ideological and more pragmatic treatment of China, which does not accept the concept of „democracy against authoritarianism”. Gutmann expects a careful „approach to improving relations, dealing with current conflicts, and securing German support for the Bidenit” policy, says Müller-Kaler. /DW