US-German Relations: The View From Berlin
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...