Browse by Topic: Germany
Back in the “Europe game”
As ever, nothing gets done in the European Union without the active engagement of the two great continental powers. But recently, France and Germany have acted more like the brakes on the European project than its turbo-charged engine. How Paris and Berlin conduct themselves in 2007 will determine whether the new 27-state Union can make the next decade a European one.
Interaction and Integration
The success of European integration—peacefully reconciling interests by interlinking them, and bringing about prosperity and social equity—has transformed the European Union into a political model that is admired throughout the world. Now we have to extend this success to Europe’s neighbors as well as other regions of the world.
Sluggish Reform in the German Armed Forces
The Bundeswehr lags behind in its urgently needed post-cold war reforms. The three biggest problems are money, money, and money. The blueprints for professionalization, downsizing, and a new generation of less heavily armored, more flexible units are all available. The funds, however, are not. In the current economic downturn, the defense ministry may be spared deep additional budget cuts, but the cuts it already suffered have crippled reform.
French-German Food Fight
So far French President Jacques Chirac reigns supreme in defending the exorbitant EU agricultural subsidies that are so lucrative for French farmers. He again demonstrated his skill this past fall in getting EU paymaster Germany to approve prolongation of the present export and production supports through 2006. Yet how long can the inequity of a German EU cost of E112 per capita—and a French per capita cost of only E20—continue?
Germany’s Balancing Actin Foreign Policy
The hope that the end of the cold war would usher in an era in which war would become as rare in the rest of the world as it has in heartland Europe has been frustrated. This requires Germany—which yearns to be a civilian power—to strike a delicate balance. It stresses peaceful, long-term treatment of root causes of unrest through foreign aid and development—but sometimes it must act militarily with allies to thwart terrorists or others. And in the process, given its history, it has to balance leadership and restraint.
