Germany typically gets a pass. But one of the reasons we need to work with Russia is to help keep Germany in check as we move forward.
Quote:Berlin, Über Alles
While many believe there is unparalleled and dangerous uncertainty in US-European relations in Trump’s era, there is reason to believe that an ascendant and unbounded Germany is the real reason for the demise of the most important alliance in the world: the critical and long-lasting transatlantic relationship.
The western Alliance has stood the test of time over 70 years, united against a common, totalitarian enemy which threatened to end humanity. The causes –- politically, economically and culturally—of the current trough in transatlantic relations comes not just from external risks but primarily from internal factors that suggest a significant and seismic shift. This is an earthquake of unprecedented proportion. It is not a topic on the G-20 agenda but it should be lurking in the minds of the assembled leaders in Hamburg this week.
Change is part and parcel of international relations, whether you are a realist or an idealist. Patterns move, politics is fractious, and competition is dynamic. Much has been made about the so-called volatility, or the “speed of change” in our technological times. Doubtless, it is even trite to say the speed of change is accelerating. Technology will cause havoc to governance and economies in the decades ahead. But the significance and scope of change is what is more apparent in the rapidly diminishing US-European marriage cum divorce.
From the US side, this new President, a true outsider, may be pedantic, pugilistic, petulant, patriotic and populist—but he is nonetheless—President of the United States of America. The US, while not a typical hegemon, is the only global superpower and in effect a G-1. It would be a tragic mistake therefore to ignore let alone obstruct and condemn him or, as Chancellor Merkel appears to be doing, castigate him and thereby risk everything and leave the relationship in tatters. Truth be told, significant parts of the European Project is in shambles, one bungled election away from a complete do-over. Even its President, Jean-Claude Juncker, recently offered up five radically different scenarios for the future of the EU.
If you actually go to all the European capitals and talk with the people and not just the elites—you quickly realize that there are at least 27 such scenarios, as many as there are member states, now that the UK is in Brexit mode. In fact, in many European countries the nationalist/populist elements are at 30 percent or more in the polls and still rising. Not jokingly, if you put any two-country letters in front of the word EXIT—you have a potential movement to leave either the EU or the common currency, if not both. Europe is in chaos, even if it pretends otherwise.
From the shores of the Mediterranean teeming with more newcomers than southern Europe can deal with, all the way up to the rebellious Intermarium countries who refuse to be governed from Brussels and back to the double-digit unemployment rates of multiple large, keystone member states – Brussels is in denial and therefore hyper-defensive. But the EU is objectively in decline, has lost power, and the world is pivoting elsewhere—namely, to Asia, while Germany is left to hold it all together.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had a sound purpose but that rationale has become “obsolete” to quote Presidential candidate Trump, even if he now has come to be convinced that we may need to reinvent it for future use. The original Eurocentric reason behind NATO was supposedly: To keep Russia (well, the USSR) out; to keep the United States in; and to keep Germany down. That all worked, until the Wall came down.
Merkel, up for re-election in a few months, has turned her election into a European referendum on Trump, thereby politicizing the alliance. It remains a mystery how the German Chancellor can keep a straight face in opposition to Trump while she votes against gay marriage in her own country. Germans themselves were ferociously opposed to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), with Merkel herself putting the screws on Brussels to make it less capitalist and more protectionist-dirigiste. A large contingent of her governing coalition – the social democrats, or the mainstream German left – opposed the Paris climate accords on the grounds that it was insufficiently environmentalist and would only serve as a giveaway for global capital to greenwash their planetary pillage.
Likewise on foreign relations: Germany’s ostpolitik served as a chilling dance on the knife-edge for the transatlantic alliance, and the early Merkel governments were some of the most open embracers of President Putin and his Russia. The ostensible opposition to Putin over Ukraine is overshadowed by Germany’s crushing dependence on Russian gas to keep its citizens from freezing in winter – again, because Merkel’s hypocritical embrace of denuclearizing their energy supply. Russia is not the USSR; the US under Trump is more impatient and isolationist, looking to its own greatness, and yet Germany is acting much more shrewdly in embracing the west’s old nemesis – not that you’d know that by listening to Merkel’s criticisms of the White House.
Nowhere is the hypocrisy more blatant than on the question of NATO spending commitments. Only 5 of its 28 members are carrying their freight by paying the agreed 2 percent of their GDP for common defense, but this hides Germany among those countries with valid extenuating circumstances – banking crises, 50% youth unemployment, major budget deficits, etc. Germany, the biggest economy in Europe by far, is also the biggest laggard in NATO with their 1.2 percent of GDP in military spending. This despite having the most robust geconomy and a huge current account surplus – 6 billion Euros in 2016. Germany could crank up spending to 2% tomorrow and still not blow past the EU-mandated limits on deficit spending. In effect, American taxpayers – who don’t get much of a welfare state themselves – are subsidizing European and particularly the Germany welfare state, by picking up so much of the tab: 70 percent of the NATO budget. It can’t continue and Trump has now read them the riot act. Our patience has worn thin and the new sheriff is not taking ‘no’ or ‘later’ for an answer any longer.
Despite all this, we will still see Mrs. Merkel, the not quite Iron Lady Chancellor, going into an election season, playing her anti-American card for all it’s worth. She has said: ”Europe must stay united because it cannot fully count on the US.” Far worse, her Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sigmar Gabriel, has said in no uncertain terms that Trump is: “a threat to peace and prosperity.” Somehow, Merkel and her cabinet get away with this unexamined criticism of the United States, despite being further to the right on social issues, environmentalism, cosier with Russia, benefiting from protectionism domestically while turning the EU into a protectionist bloc, and doing much less for NATO than they should be while calling America’s commitment to the alliance into question.
While Der Spiegel despicably portrayed a severed Trump head on its cover, Germany marches to its own and dangerous drumbeat dragging the entire EU along for the ride. Gone are the common values of the past. Peace, security and economic growth are being sacrificed for raw Merkelian ambition camouflaged in new European clothing and the blue flag with gold stars. Before it is too late, the US and the G-20 has to step up and call out Germany for this hypocrisy. The world and the European continent should not be forced to sustain the chancellor’s almost two-decade long reign over the Bundesrepublik, at the cost of the most important relationship in the world: America’s alliance with Europe.
I have been a Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, a speaker for the CDU /CSU, a frequent visitor all over Germany, to their stiftung (think tanks), and a visiting professor at their oldest university, and while I respect German order and science--it behooves us to realize that today’s political order in Germanys have always wanted to rule acted only in Germany’s interest and won too much for too long.
The transatlantic alliance in this century demands honesty and burden sharing as well as common principles and purpose. The interests of Germany alone should not dominate it. If Germany is not on board it can go it alone, realizing the US will no longer pay for it, defend it, protect it, or watch idly as it transforms the continent into a collection of puppet states. Europeans who value their nations and their own freedom should come to their own conclusions but America should not and cannot appease Berlin or accept this state of affairs any longer.
Theodore Roosevelt Malloch is a scholar, diplomat and strategist whose memoir is entitled: Davos, Aspen & Yale: My Life Behind the Elite Curtain as a Global Sherpa.
Likewise on foreign relations: Germany’s ostpolitik served as a chilling dance on the knife-edge for the transatlantic alliance, and the early Merkel governments were some of the most open embracers of President Putin and his Russia. The ostensible opposition to Putin over Ukraine is overshadowed by Germany’s crushing dependence on Russian gas to keep its citizens from freezing in winter – again, because Merkel’s hypocritical embrace of denuclearizing their energy supply. Russia is not the USSR; the US under Trump is more impatient and isolationist, looking to its own greatness, and yet Germany is acting much more shrewdly in embracing the west’s old nemesis – not that you’d know that by listening to Merkel’s criticisms of the White House.
Lucie, do you know who Ted Malloch is? Who could be the intended audience of this article?
This article offers one sweeping, impressionistic claim after another. In one paragraph, claims tumble one after another without developing a main idea.
Look at the paragraph above. Why in the world is Germany's Ostpolitik a "chilling knife-edge dance"--other than because Malloch says so. Malloch's argument just rests on labeling via adjectives. Why is opposition to Putin's aggression in the Ukraine "ostensible"? Just because Germany is dependent upon Russian gas doesn't make Germany's opposition insincere. Why is Merkel "hypocritical" because opposition to nuclear power in her country dictates her policies? Germany is a democracy, after all. And who still thinks Russia is?
So why claim "Russia is not the USSR" as if the currently authoritarian and aggressive Russia were just another Western democracy? If you just landed on earth from another planet and read this essay you might think Germany, not Russia, had occupied the Crimea and supported an insurgency in the Ukraine, while helping a bloody dictator in Syria suppress his own people and attacking the US elections.
The isolationist US is "looking to its own greatness"... what does this vague phrase mean??? Germany is "embracing the west's old nemesis"? In what sense" How? Where? Nevermind, on to complaints about Germany's NATO contributions? These soldiers certainly made their 2% contribution.
Great memories...nothingsays capitalism like taking a selfie a $700 Iphone.
Just curious. Can you articulate or extrapolate a point from these photos? The topic of the thread now is whether we should "work with Russia to keep Germany in check." Do these photos make that case ?
(07-11-2017, 12:54 AM)Dill Wrote: Just curious. Can you articulate or extrapolate a point from these photos? The topic of the thread now is whether we should "work with Russia to keep Germany in check." Do these photos make that case ?
Do they not speak for themselves?
Why do you care anyway? St.Lucie's source does not meet your approval.
Bio
Theodore Roosevelt Malloch, Ph.D.
Theodore Roosevelt MallochTheodore Roosevelt Malloch, is Chairman and CEO of The Global Fiduciary Governance LLC, a leading strategy thought leadership company. Ted Malloch conceptualizes and executes some of today’s most dynamic international projects. He was President of the 1992 World Economic Development Congress sponsored by CNN, “the common frame of reference for the world’s power elite.” That Congress focused on “Building the Integrated Global Economy” and offered Chief Executive Officers, Ministers of Governments, planning, marketing, investment, and economic leaders worldwide a forum where new business relationships were established. At that Congress Lady Margaret Thatcher dubbed him, “a global sherpa”.
Dr. Malloch is a pioneer of the global market, who works exclusively with CEO’s, business and government leaders who need to conceptualize projects on a global scale, who require access at the very highest levels, and who demand “real-time” information to understand and manage rapidly changing markets, government transformations, emerging trading blocs, and critical relationships.
Some of Dr. Malloch’s other projects have included: The founding of “The CEO Learning Partnership” for a big six accounting firm; The fashioning of the Fortune 500 Forum for Fortune Magazine; Bringing together the largest US. companies for exclusive CEO discussions; Managing the development of UN EDIFACT, the new rules and standards for global paperless trading; Creating one of the largest selling stamps in international history, to commemorate the environment and endangered species; Bringing about one of the largest mergers of two international consulting and software firms; Planning and consulting with scores of governments on privatization programs and debt for equity deals, involving billions of dollars of assets.
Dr. Malloch has served on the executive board of the World Economic Forum, which hosts the renown Davos meeting in Switzerland. He has held an ambassadorial level position in the United Nations; he headed consulting at Wharton-Chase Econometrics; has worked in capital markets at Salomon Brothers; and served in senior policy positions in the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and in the U.S. State Department. Dr. Malloch earned his Ph.D. in international political economy from the University of Toronto and has authored numerous books, articles, and corporate reports. He also serves on numerous corporate, not-for-profit and religious boards and international and governmental advisory bodies.
In 2005 Malloch founded and Chairs the Spiritual Enterprise Institute. He is a Research professor at Yale University. His many books include: Trade and Development Policy; Beyond Reductionism, Unleashing the Power of Perpetual Learning, The Global Century, with Scott Massey, Renewing American Culture: The Pursuit of Happiness, Being Generous, Thrift: Rebirth of a forgotten Virtue, and the classic best selling Spiritual enterprise: Doing Virtuous Business. yale_university
Malloch also co-direct’s the project “Practical Wisdom for Management from the spiritual and philosophical traditions” along with EABIS and Yale University.
(07-11-2017, 01:37 AM)StLucieBengal Wrote: I know who Ted Malloch is and he is a well respected diplomat on this topic.
Where, outside of the Breitbart sphere, is he respected?
He is a business professor who writes books about business ethics and has a reputation as a huckster. The article you posted is not professional level.
https://www.ft.com/content/ce317948-efbb-11e6-930f-061b01e23655 Oxford university has distanced itself from the political scientist who wants to be Donald Trump’s ambassador in Brussels, accusing him of falsely claiming to be a fellow at two of its colleges.
(07-11-2017, 01:54 AM)Dill Wrote: Where, outside of the Breitbart sphere, is he respected?
He is a business professor who writes books about business ethics and has a reputation as a huckster. The article you posted is not professional level.
https://www.ft.com/content/ce317948-efbb-11e6-930f-061b01e23655 Oxford university has distanced itself from the political scientist who wants to be Donald Trump’s ambassador in Brussels, accusing him of falsely claiming to be a fellow at two of its colleges.
This article is full of inaccuracies and illogical conclusions, besides a lot of unfounded Anti-Germany stances. too much to get into. Just take this paragraph, though.
(07-10-2017, 11:30 PM)StLucieBengal Wrote: Despite all this, we will still see Mrs. Merkel, the not quite Iron Lady Chancellor, going into an election season, playing her anti-American card for all it’s worth. She has said: ”Europe must stay united because it cannot fully count on the US.” Far worse, her Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sigmar Gabriel, has said in no uncertain terms that Trump is: “a threat to peace and prosperity.” Somehow, Merkel and her cabinet get away with this unexamined criticism of the United States, despite being further to the right on social issues, environmentalism, cosier with Russia,
OK.
What Merkel said only reflects what Trump and this article says, they can't fully count on the US. Mr. Gabriel is not on her, but on her opponent's party. Germany actually approved gay marriage, no way they are further right on social issues, no way Merkel is cosier with Russia than Mr. Trump. And environmentalism as an example how Germany is further right than the US is plain ridiculous, especially coming from a right-wing outlet probably doubting climate change and the Paris accord.
Sorry, but this is a lousy, badly researched piece. Not even the German translations are corrrect. Nothing is. Absurd, absurd.
Oh, and btw. if there's so much fear of a Fourth Reich, why would Trump insist Germany spends more on its military. Don't weaponize the threat. AS an European, this Anti-Europeanism coming out of the US right now really annoys me.
I remember when Republicans didn't trust Russia. Did Malloch ever put out an updated version of his memoirs that corrected all the things he lied about doing?
(07-11-2017, 08:18 AM)hollodero Wrote: This article is full of inaccuracies and illogical conclusions, besides a lot of unfounded Anti-Germany stances. too much to get into. Just take this paragraph, though.
OK.
What Merkel said only reflects what Trump and this article says, they can't fully count on the US. Mr. Gabriel is not on her, but on her opponent's party. Germany actually approved gay marriage, no way they are further right on social issues, no way Merkel is cosier with Russia than Mr. Trump. And environmentalism as an example how Germany is further right than the US is plain ridiculous, especially coming from a right-wing outlet probably doubting climate change and the Paris accord.
Sorry, but this is a lousy, badly researched piece. Not even the German translations are corrrect. Nothing is. Absurd, absurd.
Oh, and btw. if there's so much fear of a Fourth Reich, why would Trump insist Germany spends more on its military. Don't weaponize the threat. AS an European, this Anti-Europeanism coming out of the US right now really annoys me.
Germany is already moving forward trying to form an EU army. The fact you are a European just means you are so deep into this fourth Reich that you miss the obvious.
Why does Merkel want an EU army?
The whole EU is massive issue for the world and needs to be addressed.
(07-11-2017, 09:09 AM)BmorePat87 Wrote: I remember when Republicans didn't trust Russia. Did Malloch ever put out an updated version of his memoirs that corrected all the things he lied about doing?
I trust Russia a lot more than I trust most of the Arab nations.
(07-11-2017, 09:38 AM)StLucieBengal Wrote: Germany is already moving forward trying to form an EU army. The fact you are a European just means you are so deep into this fourth Reich that you miss the obvious.
Why does Merkel want an EU army?
So Europe's defense is no longer dependent on the US?
Isn't that what Trump says day in and day out? That Germany and others need to spend more on their military because the curent deal is so unfair to the US? Now Merkel goes along (the way you see it, at least) and suddenly you warn about the Fourth Reich?
(07-11-2017, 09:42 AM)hollodero Wrote: So Europe's defense is no longer dependent on the US?
Isn't that what Trump says day in and day out? That Germany and others need to spend more on their military because the curent deal is so unfair to the US? Now Merkel goes along (the way you see it, at least) and suddenly you warn about the Fourth Reich?
That does make zero sense.
Why are they moving forward with an EU army when they have NATO and their own individual military for each memeber?
The reason they want the EU army is this gives Germany control over these troops. Since they have many limitations in place from WW2.
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