From the AGI Bookshelf: Coalition Challenges in Afghanistan: The Politics of Alliance
The war in Afghanistan is notable for two major things: it is the longest war in American history, and it has enjoyed as many accomplishments as it has been beset …
Reaching a New Normalcy? Germany’s “New Responsibility” in Security Affairs
In 1920, U.S. presidential candidate Warren G. Harding coined the word “normalcy” in reference to the end of the U.S.’ first major foreign military engagement and a return to concentration …
The Unwinding: Reflections on the Munich Security Conference
The cauldron of crises on display at the recent Munich Security Conference may have been familiar to some who have been engaged in transatlantic relations over the past fifty years. After all, the post-World War II era was marked by conflicts overshadowed …
Afghanistan: A Difficult Year Ahead
Afghanistan will confront and challenge Germany in the coming year. It will require close collaboration between the United States and Germany as well as the coalition allies, as the ability …
A Security Agenda for the German-American Relationship
The shorter-term security agenda for the German-American relationship this year is likely to focus on the intertwined crises of ISIS, Syria, and refugees. We should expect more ISIS-inspired or directed …
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Support Our WorkA New Assertiveness? Germany wades into the Syrian conflict with vote for anti-ISIS military mission
Introduction Three weeks after the terrorist attacks in Paris, the German Bundestag approved a military deployment to provide protection, reconnaissance, and logistics to the military campaign against the Islamic State, …
Germany ‘s Continuing Strategic Struggle
Germany is a Rechtsstaat—a country anchored in law. The German constitution, or Basic Law, is a mirror of German thinking about its democracy, just as the U.S. constitution reflects American …
A Long View of Transatlantic Crises: Increasing closeness, increasing friction
In 1969, when I was elected national chairman of the Young Socialists (Jungsozialisten – Jusos), the SPD youth organization, the future US ambassador to Germany John Kornblum was a young …
Playing with Fire: Eventually, Extremism Burns
It’s difficult to ascertain the best course of action in dealing with the Islamic State. The Middle East and the actors are convoluted, at best. One certainty is that the …
German Unification and European Security
How has German unity impacted the U.S. in terms of its policies and its expectations of Germany as part of that evolving Europe in which it has become so critically important? How have the following years impacted the shaping of U.S. foreign policy, its goals, and its application? What expectations emerged about the global role of the U.S. and our expectations of a unified Germany? The questions above are the ones on which AICGS has asked commentators in this series to reflect upon as the 25th anniversary of the unification of Germany approaches on October 3. They are all significant questions but, given the space constraints, I would like to limit this brief comment to one particular aspect on which I have some modest expertise: the extensive overlap between the process that yielded German unification and the process that yielded expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Taking Stock in United Germany at 25 Years
AGI is pleased to present this collection of essays reflecting on the 25th anniversary of German unification in October 2015. We are grateful to those who have contributed to this …
A United Germany 25 Years Later
It seems so normal now. A unified Germany, as one of many; admittedly, the primus inter pares. The divided history is so distant, so last century. Its reunification is, perhaps, the world’s biggest geopolitical miracle of the past half century. When we speak about the euro, NATO, energy, politics, sports, climate matters, whatever, we speak about Germany. The impression is that this is the way it has always been. One Germany. Firmly embedded in NATO and the EU and the West. Never in doubt.
