Germany’s unique relationship with Russia ...

The Case for Berlin: 

Bringing Germany Back to the West

by Jeffrey Gedmin

I recall a small, private Berlin dinner at which a senior official of the government of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder chastised me, the American guest, over Guantánamo. It showed an egregious disregard for international law among other things, the cabinet minister advised me. During the course of the evening, that same official also volunteered that, were the Guantánamo detainees on German soil, the Federal Republic would not know exactly what to do with them. This reminds me of the undiplomatic remark of a Berlin-based British diplomat from around the same time who quipped to me: “When Germans face a dilemma, they stare it in the face—then proceed to walk away, leaving the hardest choices for others.”

Talking big and carrying a small stick is no longer possible for Germany if it hopes to adopt a more mature, responsible foreign policy. From the crisis in Ukraine we now know three important things: that Russia has a strategy toward Eastern Europe, that we don’t, and that the European Union is not yet close to existing as a serious strategic actor, not even in its own backyard. But facing a rising China in Asia and the looming threat of a nuclear Iran in the Middle East, Washington will need help in Eastern Europe in defending, advancing, and maintaining a liberal order. Germany is essential to the task of containing Russian influence and aims. Continuing to avoid the hard choices in Berlin will have serious consequences for the West and the world.

It’s not just in Ukraine that Vladimir Putin’s regime has been advancing its agenda. There were the 2007 cyber attacks on Estonia. There was the 2008 invasion of Georgia. There’s diplomatic and economic pressure today on Moldova, Macedonia, and Montenegro to discourage these (and other countries) from further Western integration. While the US was concentrating on Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Arab Spring, and while the EU has been largely preoccupied with its sovereign debt crisis, a Putin Doctrine toward Eastern Europe has emerged.

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