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  Karin Johnston, Bosch II

What are you up to these days?

I am the Development Director of Women In International Security (WIIS) in Washington, D.C. WIIS is a non-profit membership organization that advances women’s leadership in the international peace and security field. I am also an adjunct professor at American University and at the University of Maryland. I’ve recently published several reports with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, on topics such as strategic competition in the Arctic and the geopolitical impact of China’s growing influence in Latin America. My most recent report on the transatlantic alliance and U.S.-European defense industry cooperation was published in May.

What was your most influential personal memory / event during your Bosch year, and how did it shape your life/career after that?

I was Bosch II, and my second Stage was in Berlin, at the time still a divided city in a divided country. Through interviews and visits to East Berlin and East Germany, I gained invaluable insights about the politics and lives of people in the GDR just before its collapse. Those insights later informed my Ph.D. studies and subsequent career. I especially remember a trip Kathy Mack (Bosch II) and I took to Dresden on the anniversary of the bombing of Dresden February 13—cold, the jagged, blackened rubble of the Frauenkirche softened by a white blanket of snow at dusk. Unforgettable.

How much contact do you still have with Germany? With your Bosch cohort?

I still have many friends and contacts in Germany, and I regularly follow events in Germany for my research and writing. I have developed many lasting, wonderful friendships with Bosch alumni. It is fortunate that the DC area has such a large group of alumni.

The transatlantic relationship is currently fraught… where do you see it going, and how can the damage be repaired?

Yes, I am concerned. I worry about the trajectory of U.S.-European relations given the increasingly divisive rhetoric of the past several months, and that European and American officials seem set on following increasingly divergent paths—with Americans talking of a retreat from Europe and Europeans speaking of decoupling from the U.S. All of us who know Germany/Europe know we continue to share key interests and core values. Finding ways to share our personal stories and experiences can be a valuable tool in correcting the misdirected and misinformed rhetoric that continues to damage our transatlantic relations.

I am thinking about the work the Bosch alumni board is undertaking now in this time of disruption and change, and how important it is—taking agency and working to preserve a mutually respectful and beneficial German-American relationship. I think of all the Bosch alumni I’ve met—enormous talent, experience, humor, drive—and I hope we can do “small things” and take our Bosch experiences and “bear witness” to show why and how transatlantic relations matter.

What’s your NEXT BIG THING?

I don’t know whether I have a NEXT BIG THING…maybe a bunch of “small” big things—visiting friends in California, finally reading the stack of (fun) books I’ve collected, figuring out which plants are really “deer-resistant” to salvage our garden, or looking forward to singing in a choir again. Small things often bring the greatest pleasure.