AGI News
Germany, not Japan, as Essential Partner of the United States
Lily Gardner Feldman
Senior Fellow
Dr. Lily Gardner Feldman is a Senior Fellow at AICGS. She previously served as the Harry & Helen Gray Senior Fellow at AICGS and directed the Institute’s Society, Culture & Politics Program. She has a PhD in Political Science from MIT.
From 1978 until 1991, Dr. Gardner Feldman was a professor of political science (tenured) at Tufts University in Boston. She was also a Research Associate at Harvard University’s Center for European Studies, where she chaired the German Study Group and edited German Politics and Society; and a Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, where she chaired the Seminar on the European Community and undertook research in the University Consortium for Research on North America. From 1990 until 1995, Dr. Gardner Feldman was the first Research Director of AICGS and its Co-director in 1995. From 1995 until 1999, she was a Senior Scholar in Residence at the BMW Center for German and European Studies at Georgetown University. She returned to Johns Hopkins University in 1999.
Dr. Gardner Feldman has published widely in the U.S. and Europe on German foreign policy, German-Jewish relations, international reconciliation, non-state entities as foreign policy players, and the EU as an international actor. Her latest publications are: Germany’s Foreign Policy of Reconciliation: From Enmity to Amity, 2014; “Die Bedeutung zivilgesellschaftlicher und staatlicher Institutionen: Zur Vielfalt und Komplexität von Versöhnung,” in Corine Defrance and Ulrich Pfeil, eds., Verständigung und Versöhnung, 2016; and “The Limits and Opportunities of Reconciliation with West Germany During the Cold War: A Comparative Analysis of France, Israel, Poland and Czechoslovakia” in Hideki Kan, ed., The Transformation of the Cold War and the History Problem, 2017 (in Japanese). Her work on Germany’s foreign policy of reconciliation has led to lecture tours in Japan and South Korea.
This recent essay from Harry & Helen Gray Senior Fellow Dr. Lily Gardner Feldman explores the ever-evolving German-American relationship in the context of the U.S.’ proposed “pivot” toward Asia under the current Obama administration. While many believe that Japan will become America’s key ally as it attempts to hedge against a rising China, Dr. Feldman argues that this is simply not the case. As European-U.S. relations continue to strengthen, especially through the newly proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, Germany will prove to play a crucial role as a top U.S. ally, due largely in part to its successful and comprehensive policy of reconciliation with its neighbors.
This essay originally appeared in Weltzeit, the magazine of Deustche Welle, as part of their 60th anniversary series examining key issues for Germany.
“Der wichtigste Partner”: German Version; “German, not Japan, as Essential Partner of the United States”: English Version
