Journal of International Studies

More than any other European state, Germany is responsible for developing and implementing the European Union’s (EU’s) policy toward Russia. Berlin needs to accept this responsibility, assume leadership, and develop a Russia policy fit for the twenty-first century. To succeed, Germans need to closely watch the evolution of the economic, social, and political situation in Russia and adapt their policy as necessary. The next several years in Russia will be interesting, and the next two decades will be decisive for the country’s development. Recommendations for Germany Base the new policy on German and EU interests, principles, and practical needs as well as a realistic assessment of Russia rather than mere impressions of what the Russian people need or a desire to influence the country’s domestic politics.    Broaden people-to-people contacts with ordinary Russians to create social compatibility between Russia and the rest of Europe.   Demand, when necessary, that ...

Achtung! At long last I have assumed my proper rank as  Professor-Doktor (spoken in my best Colonel Klink accent). Or so my Lufthansa boarding pass told me upon departing Boston last Tuesday. No one does titles better than Germans. I'm on my first visit to Germany in twenty years, and my first ever to united Berlin. The Wall still stood in 1986, when my University of Regensburg class made the bus ride through East Germany into West Berlin. That marked the Naval Diplomat's first experience hobnobbing with godless commies. It left an impression. I clambered aboard another aircraft so soon after Sydney in order to address a conference on "Maritime Security and Europe" (at the Maritim Hotel, fittingly). My sacred trust was to analyze the strategic features of the Indian Ocean basin, mainly the Malacca, Bab el-Mandeb, and Hormuz straits. Our European friends appear eager to discern how they can advance the cause of security in maritime Asia beyond dispatching nav...

A quick note about the political climate in Western Europe as I enjoy a weekend of sightseeing in Berlin -- a gray weekend, alas -- before heading home. It was good to discover that I can still read German despite seldom doing so these days. It seems all those years spent conjugating verbs, etc., weren't in vain. But what I read about transatlantic relations in leading newspapers this week -- and heard from talking with Germans at our conference and traipsing the streets amid ordinary folk -- should give Washington pause. To  take one front-page story  at random, a commentator for  Die Welt  proclaimed the death of the Obama administration's soft-power policy in the wake of allegations that U.S. intelligence services have been surreptitiously monitoring Chancellor Angela Merkel's communications. Soft power is a power of attraction deriving from culture, institutions, and policies. Many Germans were feeling repelled rather than attracted this week. Think abo...

One advantage of visiting a place only once in a while is that changes appear to happen stepwise. What happens so gradually that residents barely notice smacks you in the face. So it was with Berlin. Color was my overriding impression when visiting West and East Berlin in 1986. Or, more precisely, a clash of color palettes between the two halves of the city. West Berlin was spic-and-span, shopping districts like the Kurfürstendamm a riot of neon lights. The East? Gray, soot-stained, and drab. Bombed-out buildings lingered forty years after World War II. No more. New construction has filled in the no-man's land along the Berlin Wall, mostly effacing the Cold War past. Indeed, only small traces reveal that the city was once divided. A few sections of the Wall are on display in Potsdamer Platz, complete with a huckster decked out in an East German military uniform. He's eager -- for a fee -- to stamp your passport, just like the bad old days when crossing from West to ...

Europe heaved a sigh of relief with Angela Merkel’s reelection as German chancellor. She has been a key support during the eurozone’s fiscal-financial problems, and all of Europe knows how important Berlin’s support will remain going forward. Of course, Merkel  has yet to settle on the specifics  of her coalition government. On Wednesday the Green Party announced that it will end unprecedented talks with the Christian Democrats and not serve as a coalition partner. Now a Grand Coalition with the Social Democrats looms. If the German media are right, a lot of compromise will go into that effort. But even with all the prospective political give and take, Europe can count on future German support. Economic and financial imperatives will compel it. Even if the vote had gone less well than it did, the country simply is too tied to the euro and the union to turn away. Berlin may negotiate its best deal, but it knows that if it were to let the common currency fail, even in par...