German-American relations after 9-11: The Schröder and the Merkel administration in comparison (ePub)

Most of the second half of the 20th century was marked by a strong German-American relationship whose primary roots were the United States' military contributions in the fight against Nazi-Germany during World War II and its generous Marshall Plan to help rebuild a moribund German post-war economy. After the outbreak of the Cold War, deepening the transatlantic relations was a strategic necessity for both sides of the Atlantic, given the imminent geopolitical threat from the communist Soviet Union. In the decades to follow, ameliorating the partnership with the United States was, besides fostering European integration, the major goal of German foreign policy.
However, the transatlantic relationship changed significantly after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 the German-American relationship was put to a particularly hard test. Although the Schröder administration's first reaction was unlimited solidarity and support for the invocation of Article 5 of the NATO treaty, Germany did not support the United States' decision to go to war in Iraq, which implied serious tensions with the Bush administration.
This paper's purpose is to show how the relationship between Germany and the United States has evolved during the last five years. In the first part, I would like to illustrate the evolution of Germany's foreign policy towards the United States in the aftermath of September 11 until the outbreak of the Iraq war. I will describe the primary factors leading to the drastic deterioration of transatlantic relations, such as chancellor Gerhard Schröder's opportunistic exploitation of the Iraq issue in his election campaign. But the leaders' personalities alone do not suffice to explain the whole picture. Thus the paper's second part will elaborate on the German public mood, characterized by anti-Americanism, pacifism, and emancipation from the United States. The third part will be dedicated to the question why Bush and Schröder's successor Angela Merkel get along so well - given their different backgrounds and taking into account that the Grand Coalition has not significantly changed policy on issues of division with Bush. An outlook in the future of the German-American partnership will conclude the paper in the fourth and last part.