America and Germany: The 'Axis
of Pragmatism' (Frankfurter AllgemeineZeitung, Germany)
"Today the West is facing a
geopolitical challenge not seen since the end of the Cold War. It faces a
Russia that has thrown down the gauntlet, and in the midst of a nationalist
fervor, is engaged in a kind of 're-Sovietization light.'
... Washington and Germany are looking for common
ground. And that is as it should be. Who knows, perhaps Putin will
permanently weld the estranged partners together. In any case, when it comes down
to it, this is a partnership that is truly indispensable."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, sent to take the heat at the Nuclear Security Summit at The Hague, said Moscow had no problem with cancellation of the G-8 Summit.
Ever since Putin
- still bemoaning the disintegration of the Soviet Union - signaled a
geopolitical rollback, Washington and Berlin have been seeking to close ranks.
And that is as it should be.
One still recalls this statement: "Spying
among friends just isn't done." Last year, the chancellor expressed great
indignation over the fact that the American NSA had apparently been monitoring
her cell phone for years. This outrage was shared by a vast majority of Germans.
Friends of America were (and still are) in a tough position. There has been no
swan song for German-American cooperation, but the general view is that U.S.
spying was a massive breach of trust that would be hard to repair. That is essentially
the view today.
Today, of course, the West is facing a
geopolitical challenge not seen since the end of the Cold War. It faces a
Russia that has thrown down the gauntlet, and in the midst of a nationalist
fervor, is engaged in a kind of "re-Sovietization
light." So this is no time for resentment or indifference. It is time for
the closest possible cooperation and unity among partners, even if it is driven
less by empathy and more by a pragmatic need for action.
Chancellor Merkel - Obama's most important ally
It is therefore no coincidence that American
President Obama considers Germany in general, and the chancellor in particular,
pivotal in this crisis: Angela Merkel is his most important European ally. They
have spoken several times by phone over recent days to coordinate the Western
response to Russia's actions. Without Germany, and the United States as well,
this would be impossible - and only when both, along with their partners, agree
on a course of action. In the best case scenario, they will follow the same
script (especially when the president and chancellor are well aware that citizens
in both of their countries have no desire to see an escalation).
After
the end of the Cold War, many people on both sides of the Atlantic worried that
the bond that held together the old West would grow weak. In the 1990s, all the
talk was of a cultural break with the United States. Then came the Iraq War, which was a difficult test of Western cohesion.
Once again, it was chic and easy to denounce America as stupid, foolhardy, and
aggressive.
Posted
By Worldmeets.US
After
a phase of almost pathological idolization of Obama, revelations about the NSA
dealt a further blow to Washington - the great demon of espionage. Predictions
of transatlantic alienation and estrangement had come true.
That
is, until Russian President Putin, lamenting the allegedly broken promises of
the West, still bemoaning the collapse of the Soviet Union and dreaming of national
greatness, signaled a geopolitical rollback. Washington and Germany are looking
for common ground. And that is as it should be. Who
knows, perhaps Putin will permanently weld the estranged partners together. In
any case, when it comes down to it, this is a partnership that is truly indispensable.
