Iraq Rift Launches New Era in German Foreign Policy

With the German and British flags displayed neatly behind him, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on Thursday uttered the words that he hopes will heal the rift that Iraq has opened within Europe and across the Atlantic.

"No matter what the difference of opinions were before, it goes without saying that healthy transatlantic relations are necessary and we'll work towards that aim in the future," he said, following a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, America' strongest EU ally in the Iraq war.

Foreign policy analysts in Germany couldn't agree more. The Iraq war marked the biggest step forward in a German foreign policy that has been growing out of the shadows of World War II and the Cold War. Some see it as a positive part of Germany's political evolution since reunification 12 years ago. To others, Germany is treading a dangerous line by alienating the United States and putting its faith in the fledgling foreign policy of a fractious and unreliable Europe.

"I think this is a watershed," said Jens van Scherpenberg, head of the transatlantic affairs department of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. "The transatlantic alliance is not about to be what it was."

The decline of the U.S.-German relationship

Since just after Sept. 11, 2001, when around 300,000 Germans gathered in Berlin's Tiergarten park to show their solidarity with the United States, relations between Berlin and Washington have taken a massive turn. Agreement with the U.S. in Afghanistan turned to cautious criticism and then outright disagreement when the Bush administration began agitating for a military invasion of Iraq.

As the U.N. Security Council debated a U.S. and British demand to sanction military action against Hussein's regime in Baghdad, Germany partnered with France, Russia and China to form a powerful anti-war alliance. The U.S.-British coalition eventually went to war without a U.N. resolution and American congressmen renamed their cafeteria French fries to "freedom" fries and vowed to strike back at former allies France and Germany.

"It's not just what they (the Germans) did, but how they did it," said Jeffrey Gedmin, director of the Aspen Institute in Berlin and an outspoken critic of the German government's Iraq policy. "What does it mean when … an ally like Germany is not just prepared to abstain but to actively, energetically and systematically … contribute to the failure of our mission? It makes people ask if that's the way an ally functions."

Dr. Ingo Peters, who heads the Center on Transatlantic Foreign and Security Policy Studies at Berlin's Free University, said Schröder's team could have adopted a better tactic.

"The problem is that the transatlantic relationship isn't just a bilateral relationship, it's a multilateral relationship," said Peters. "And so it's not just the (German-American relationship) that has been damaged, it's the European-American relationship as well. "

The battle to craft one European voice

Nothing has proven to be a bigger set-back to Europe's dream of a common foreign policy than the Iraq war. While Denmark, Italy, Spain and Great Britain rallied to America's side, France, Germany and Belgium lead a coalition of EU nations vehemently opposed to the war.

With fighting all but over, pro and anti-war Europe is trying to find its way back to a happy middle. Recent meetings over postwar Iraq between EU foreign ministers and Blair and Schröder are indications those intentions are honest.

"It's very central that Germany, France and Great Britain come to an agreement, I think that's also in the interest of Blair and the transatlantic alliance," said Stefan Fröhlich, a University of Erlangen professor who just finished a stint at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Transatlantic Security in Washington.

"This German administration sees and recognizes the importance of getting that unified voice," said Fröhlich. "Not in the sense of fashioning a counterweight, but with the realization that we will achieve something in America when we speak with one voice."

The road to a unified European policy is filled with roadblocks, however. The loud talk about unified military ambitions -- and a planned meeting on security policy with the leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg in April -- comes at a time when the EU is undergoing the greatest expansion in its history, welcoming even more voices and opinions into the already cacophonous body.

The Aspen Institute's Gedmin, who dismisses German pledges to prioritize Europe's military presence as "smoke and mirrors," says that Germany needs to be careful not to try to create a strong Europe with the sole aim of creating a counterbalance to the United States.

"It will become a problem if the foreign policy program of Germany is to play the old French Gaullist card, trying to define itself and Europe in opposition to the United States," Gedmin warned.

Most analysts agree that a healthy, strong relationship to the United States is necessary, but needs to be redefined.

"They have to first find out how to deal with one another," said Peters of Berlin's Free University. With the threat of atomic war gone and the iron curtain collapsed, the partners need new common interests, "and that's not a process that can happen from one day to the next."