Impact of the Crisis

Experts and analysts always say China, but it’s the one you never see coming that hits the hardest. They likely do not account for the fact that China, although ‘rising’, is not trusted throughout the world and will likely have a limited role instead of a leading one on the world stage because of this.

On the other hand, Germany’s stranglehold on and ever-growing control of the EU (the world’s largest economy) is also not accounted for. Couple that with the misguided appearance of being 100% pacifist since the second World War, yet it’s the third largest arms exporter in the world, you can give the upper hand to Germany. It’s a highly overlooked and dismissed fact.

BERLIN (Own report) – The EU crisis is causing a serious weakening of the EU’s foreign policy, concluded a recent study published by the Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. Not only are the member states’ financial outlays for foreign and military activities clearly diminishing, due to leeway shrinkage caused by budget cuts, but “conflicts between member states have grown” around how to handle the crisis, according to the SWP. This has stifled “joint foreign policy initiatives.” The think tank points out that the enduring crisis and the hard-line German austerity dictate have damaged the prestige of the EU and, therefore, also severely tarnished its global “soft power.” Particularly damaging are the cuts in the military sector, even ranging up to 30 percent reductions in defense spending of the smaller and medium sized EU countries, jeopardizing their long term capability of participation in EU wars. The option of instrumentalizing a common EU foreign and military policy, to reinforce German clout and eventually promote it to world power status, had always been an important motive in Berlin for the buildup and development of the EU.

Berlin’s new activism

Germany is taking advantage of its robust economic health to firm up its presence on the international stage. However, trade is the engine of a diplomacy that still fears embracing military interventions, a stance which remains popular with the German public.

…

Another illustration of the German approach: relations with the United States, which extend well beyond the merely economic. Germany’s anchorage in NATO is one of the pillars of German diplomacy. In recent months Berlin has managed use its privileged ties with Washington to rekindle in dramatic fashion the negotiation of a Free Trade Treaty between the European Union and the United States. Visiting Berlin on February 1, American Vice-President Joe Biden gave the green light from the new Obama administration to the initiative. And so, to promote German industry, Angela Merkel has not hesitated to bypass the European Commission, which is responsible for the negotiation, and to start a new dispute with France, which is much more cautious about a free-trade agreement. Nor has Merkel hesitated to turn her back on multilateralism, the cornerstone of German diplomacy.