Chengdu and Houston are located on two distant continents, many thousands of kilometers away from Germany. And yet, the dispute between China and America that has led to the closure of consulates in these two cities, much more to do with us, as to most Germans aware of is likely to be. Because he is a good example of the steady deterioration of relations between the old supremacy of the West and their new rivals in Asia. This is the biggest change in world politics since the Cold war. A few States have to lose as much as Germany.
Our security and our prosperity for a long time, on two conditions. The most important, often underestimated, has always been the Alliance with America in the Nato. The Federal Republic would never have been able to defend itself alone against the Soviet Union. And just because the Americans and the acquisitions, could develop in the West German industry, the country lives on today, as well. The United Germany has also benefited from the Alliance, even if it was quite so directly. It was the Nato, which ended the wars of Succession in Yugoslavia, before they could inflict on the European order, the bigger the damage. And Putin would have been taken in Eastern Europe a few years ago, probably much more, had it not been for the Alliance.
This old world order is crumbling before our very eyes. That’s not alone to Trump, whose nationalist and confrontational policy, is disturbing large parts of the German Public so much. Here, long-term historical developments at Work, which had been under previous presidents. A prevent America from Europe. Obama once referred to Russia as a regional power, what was, ultimately, a judgment on the entire continent. Europe, once the centre of world events, from the American perspective, only one Region of many. And George W. Bush has demanded that the Europeans should do more for their defense. Trump kill this topic now on its way in the election campaign, as has been shown this week a withdrawal of troops from Germany announced. But that should not obscure the fact that America’s interests have changed fundamentally.
Two rival camps
This has a lot to do with the second major Trend of our time: the rise of China as a global great power. The is as textbook as it could have been thought up by a Professor of international relations. Until the country becomes stronger economically, then it is upgrading, it brings more and more areas of the world under his control, until it finally, with the current Hegemons to each other. None of this comes as a surprise. In Washington, it is a topic of discussion for many years about the strategic challenge that China’s rise brings with it. Trump has since found his customs get no better answer than his predecessor, he has strengthened Beijing even in many ways. But his presidency is a foretaste of the future: Because Russia is not economic, is likely to be the new world order bipolar, with an American and a Chinese camp. In the worst case, they will stalk each other and fight as in the past the super powers in the Cold war.
you Take all that, then the German model is in acute danger. Where is our security if you can no longer rely on America and the Nato to the full? How do we uphold our interests in key regions, when Washington provides and instead, China makes wide? With whom Germany does business, should disintegrate the world into two trading blocs, an American and a Chinese? Whose side are we, and the EU measure in this force? On none of these questions talk in German politics seriously. The country has declared climate change (left) and Migration (right) to the main problems and in the past few years, just the eyes, it is blind, that is strategically located in a cul-de-SAC. The next Chancellor needs to change course.
