Germany and the United States in the Age of Terror: Ideas, Domestic Politics, and the International System of States

摘要

What accounts for the rift between Washington and Berlin at present. No single cause emerges from an examination of this situation that hopes to go beyond the facile, reactive, if not jingoistic, analyses of the chattering classes in Berlin and Washington. Rather, the current strain is wrought of a convergence of forces, complicating manifestations of history, ideology, experience, and ambition that have always swirled around the German-American relationship, however inchoately. For a variety of reasons, these factors have coalesced to exacerbate tensions and produce a troubling reaction in the last several months since the American coalition against terror marched to war, first in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. This article examines these complicating factors and the circumstances that have made them so virulent of late.