The United States Wants More German Reliability

Barack Obama hosts Angela Merkel at a White House banquet. The United States is concerned about German-American relations. And not just because of Libya.

This week, the United States rolls out the thick, red carpet for Angela Merkel. Since his inauguration, President Barack Obama has held only three state banquets — for the presidents of China, Mexico and the Prime Minister of India. The fourth will be held for Merkel on Tuesday. And if that weren’t honor enough, Obama will give Merkel the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian award. Washington is celebrating German-American friendship because it is deeply concerned about that relationship.

Bilateral relations between Germany and the U.S. have been disrupted since Germany abstained from voting for Libyan intervention at the U.N. Security Council, in essence voting with Russia and China and against the major allies, France, Great Britain and the United States. The questions coming from the White House since then have been very fundamental: In which direction is Germany headed? How does it see its current role globally and what role does it intend to play in the future?

That these questions are being directed at Angela Merkel is not without irony. After the disputes between then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President George W. Bush over the war in Iraq, Merkel was welcomed by Washington with a great deal of sympathy and the highest of expectations. She was seen as solid, stable and dependable — as a decisive fighter for liberty and human rights as well as an unwavering friend of the United States.

Today she’s seen by Washington as focusing only on domestic politics. Doubts about Germany’s dependability are spreading. Heather A. Conley of the Center for Strategic and International Studies asks, “Where is our partner? During her ‘Grand Coalition’ she wasn’t able to lead freely. Now that she is able to, it’s terrible to see how incapable of leading she is.”*

Stephen F. Szabo of the Transatlantic Academy also criticizes Germany’s reluctance to assume leadership and international responsibility, saying that Merkel’s domestic policy tactics haven’t paid off: “Libya didn’t get her one additional vote in the Baden-Württemberg elections.”*

The person most responsible for the Libya debacle is Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s Foreign Minister, of whom it is said in Washington that he simply isn’t up to the demands of his job. But prior to the Libya vote, Merkel had had a face-to-face discussion with Westerwelle in which she agreed with his assessment — contrary to all the advice she was receiving from highly placed officials in both the Foreign Office and her own chancellery. So the responsibility for Germany’s isolation lies in her own coalition. Nor does it help when even cabinet representatives from Berlin admit privately in Washington that the Libya vote was a huge mistake. But the Americans have nonetheless taken careful note of that.

Europe’s Future Causes More Worries in Washington than Libya’s Fate

But if only it were just Germany’s Libya vote! Merkel’s erratic reaction to the European debt crisis causes the Americans even more worry. A failing Euro has the potential to have repercussions across the whole international financial system. That’s why Merkel is expected to get serious about Germany taking the lead on the issue as it rightly should, as Europe’s largest economy.

It’s precisely European affairs that raise the most doubts about Merkel’s stability. Charles A. Kupchan of the Council on Foreign Relations worries about the “rationalization” running rampant in Germany and throughout Europe. Kupchan said, “The most notable thing is that Chancellor Merkel doesn’t appear to be a passionate European.”*

The future of Europe, in any case, causes more worry in America than does Libya’s fate. And Germany would play a key role in that had it not abandoned the foreign policy arena.

America needs strong partners now more than ever before. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are no more popular there than they are in Europe and they are causing increasing financial strain on the United States. Its national debt is far more threatening than that of any problem European country. China’s rise is reflected in many Americans’ eyes as the decline of their own country. Obama would no doubt like to be seen as America’s “first pacifist president” but it is precisely because he knows he can’t overcome the Asian challenge single-handedly that he’s asking for Merkel’s help.

The message from Washington is that it wants Germany back on board and this message is being given more to Germany than it is to Angela Merkel personally. Nervousness is increasing that — twenty years after German reunification — trans-Atlantic ties may be weakening. Trading a state dinner and a freedom medal for more German reliability would be a winning deal for a serious Obama.

*Editor’s Note: These quotations, accurately translated, cannot be verified.