16 world leaders meet in Berlin
By Christoph Schwennicke
BERLIN (DPA): No appointment book could be more tightly packed than that of an American president on a state visit to Europe, and so the Modern Governing in the 21st Century summit conference Saturday in Berlin will have to settle for just three hours in U.S. President Bill Clinton's current appointment calendar.
Clinton's handlers have sandwiched the summit in between a slew of other events, ranging from accepting the International Charlemagne Prize in Aachen to a gala dinner in Berlin's Charlottenburger Schloss palace. The speeches surrounding the upcoming summit and Clinton's visit have been noticeably high- flown.
Counting summit host and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, 16 world leaders from all around the world have been invited to attend. All except British Prime Minister, the father of a new baby, have committed to participate. Most likely, they will achieve little that will be longer-lasting than the evanescent results produced at the last reform summit last November in Florence.
The idea behind this series of twice-yearly summit meetings of heads of major governments has had to be adapted to better conform to reality in recent months, so it did not lose its effectiveness completely.
In Berlin, for instance, the phrase "third way" has produced a slightly sour reaction. Though the phrase was once used to describe the summit series when it opened in Washington, some say it has turned into a "tainted phrase" ever since German Chancellor Schroeder and British Prime Minister Blair made it into the guiding spirit of their White Paper, sparking great controversy in the German Social Democratic Party.
Beyond that, a central thesis of Anthony Giddens, the leading guru of the center-left movement, has come under increasing pressure recently -- the idea that modern, socially-responsible democracies are gaining ground and acceptance, at least in Europe if not around the world.
But one-time summit host Massimo D'Alema of Italy has long since lost his office and in the United States, conservative Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush has at least a half-way believable chance of beating incumbent Vice President Al Gore in the race for the White House.
So it has become a generally accepted understanding that "progressive" governments of sorts will meet in this summit series.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's efforts to ensure his governmental policies enjoy a good name certainly is one of the main forces behind the decision of a working group of 200 scientists to turn its attentions to the question of "civil society" in the age of globalization.
But just how -- and whether -- the governments of Argentina, Canada, Greece and South Africa can "learn" from each other, as Gerhard Schroeder put it in his invitation, is still shrouded in mystery,
Despite everything, the last conference in Florence proved one thing. The three hours at the summit are worth almost any major leader's time for the high-impact photo opportunities they supply and the memorable pictures that they produce. This time, the resulting pictures will be made into a book -- and that is something you can make book on.