How Obama Could Solve the Spying Affair

After the Iraq War, climate change and the NSA affair, German-American confrontation is tending toward a climax. The current dispute between Washington and Berlin says something fundamental about the disaffection between Americans and Germans.

If the Americans were Germans, they would have long since committed to environmental protection. If the Americans were Germans, they would have bowed to the U.N. Security Council when it rejected the Iraq War. If the Americans were Germans, they would be subject to the International Criminal Court in The Hague and the rule of international law.

But the Americans are not Germans. If the governments in Washington and Berlin are arguing so bitterly now over a pitiful act of spying by the CIA, then it is because this dispute is so fundamental. It reveals the same alienation as the NSA affair, climate change and the war in Iraq: The Germans expect the Americans to keep to a few rules in their relations with the rest of the world, but the Americans are not prepared to do this.

In Germany we have learned to moderate ourselves, to apply the reins, and to respect agreements, both bilateral and multilateral. For a long time, the Americans have helped the Germans to learn this. Now, however, the Germans have become more audibly irked by the fact that the Americans appear to do whatever they see fit, from the open affront to the U.N. to the snubbing of close friends.

That is why the dispute will continue.

Giving in, submitting, fitting in — this contradicts a little with the disposition and tradition of many Americans. Even their own government is more tolerated than trusted. Rules that were written abroad are even less likely to be accepted, whether bilateral or multilateral. This way of thinking is particularly entrenched in the U.S. intelligence agencies, who really only keep to one rule: For the national security of the United States, everything is essentially relevant.

In these circles, the law-abiding Germans are considered a security risk. They prefer to trade with Russia and Iran than to understand the geostrategic context. In fact, the Federal Republic [of Germany] has become accustomed to leaving delicate military operations to others. To derive a permanent and intensified spying law from that is, of course, absurd.

The German-American dispute over rules has lasted a long time and is now heading toward a climax: Chancellor Merkel wants to obtain a concession from President Obama to put U.S. spies on Germany’s borders. The character of the two politicians suggests that the case is not out of control, unlike it was once was with Schröder and Bush. Obama will probably not make the greatest concessions. He is a lawyer and a multilateralist, and therefore tends to be a bit German, but on the other hand he is the commander in chief and does not like to appear a weakling. Obama’s pragmatic, American solution should look like this: He should at least ask the U.S. spies to heed his number one rule — “don’t do anything stupid.” In other words: Spy, if necessary, but don’t ever get caught.