aGameOfThrones
10-27-2013, 03:13 PM
1. An ally today may not be an ally tomorrow. Few aspects of the human condition are more fickle than foreign relations. In a famous illustration of how often foreign affairs experts get it wrong, the author Norman Angell in 1909 suggested that war between advanced nations had become obsolete. Just five years later the world was plunged into the most destructive war in history. The story of U.S.-Japan relations is also chastening: a staunch American ally through World War I and for many years after, Japan turned on a dime in the 1930s, and, without so much as an ultimatum, wiped out the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in 1941. In a similarly sudden reversal of geopolitical attitudes, Russia and China were U.S. allies in World War II but by the late 1940s had become dangerous enemies. As for Germany, its claims as a solid American ally are, er, patchy: although during the Cold War, West Germany generally cooperated with the United States in outmaneuvering the Soviet Union, the overall experience of twentieth century German military policy tells a different story.
*2.*Germany has long been unilaterally cultivating a “special relationship” with Communist China. Berlin has cut deals to transfer technology to China. Not the least of these is one to build Airbus 320 planes in China. In return Beijing has granted German exports privileged status in the Chinese market. (Although Airbus is nominally based in France, it is more and more a German operation.) On a per-capita basis, Germany’s exports to China are nearly three times America’s.
3. The German economic system is incompatible with American ideals. The Germans openly use cartels and other restraints on trade to frustrate Washington’s efforts to build a world economy based on free markets. Perhaps the most obvious illustration of the point is the German automotive industry’s bizarre relationship with Japan. Although German cars are almost as completely shut out of the Japanese market as Detroit-made cars (Volkswagen has been allocated a share of just 1 percent in Japan versus nearly 40 percent for Toyota), Germany has long had a policy of keeping its complaints sotto voce and German officials are notable for their silence when the United States tries to combat Japanese non-tariff barriers. There is method in the madness because in return the Japanese have generally eschewed targeting the German market. A central principle of German economic policy is mercantilism and this helps explain why Germany last year ran a bilateral surplus of a whopping $60 billion with the United States.
4. Everybody’s doing it. As the British security expert Richard Aldrich has pointed out, there is a touch of irony in the fact that nations like Germany and France have been complaining about American spying. That’s because these nations have not exactly been shy in their own espionage activities. *Any agreement by America to refrain from spying on allies (and ostensible allies) would be entirely one-sided. Whereas America’s legalistic culture makes it difficult for American officials to deviate from international agreements, in nations with less concern for the rule of law, officials are far less troubled by such scruples. Not the least *such nation is Germany.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2013/10/27/hang-in-there-barack-four-good-reasons-to-keep-bugging-merkels-phone/?partner=yahootix
*2.*Germany has long been unilaterally cultivating a “special relationship” with Communist China. Berlin has cut deals to transfer technology to China. Not the least of these is one to build Airbus 320 planes in China. In return Beijing has granted German exports privileged status in the Chinese market. (Although Airbus is nominally based in France, it is more and more a German operation.) On a per-capita basis, Germany’s exports to China are nearly three times America’s.
3. The German economic system is incompatible with American ideals. The Germans openly use cartels and other restraints on trade to frustrate Washington’s efforts to build a world economy based on free markets. Perhaps the most obvious illustration of the point is the German automotive industry’s bizarre relationship with Japan. Although German cars are almost as completely shut out of the Japanese market as Detroit-made cars (Volkswagen has been allocated a share of just 1 percent in Japan versus nearly 40 percent for Toyota), Germany has long had a policy of keeping its complaints sotto voce and German officials are notable for their silence when the United States tries to combat Japanese non-tariff barriers. There is method in the madness because in return the Japanese have generally eschewed targeting the German market. A central principle of German economic policy is mercantilism and this helps explain why Germany last year ran a bilateral surplus of a whopping $60 billion with the United States.
4. Everybody’s doing it. As the British security expert Richard Aldrich has pointed out, there is a touch of irony in the fact that nations like Germany and France have been complaining about American spying. That’s because these nations have not exactly been shy in their own espionage activities. *Any agreement by America to refrain from spying on allies (and ostensible allies) would be entirely one-sided. Whereas America’s legalistic culture makes it difficult for American officials to deviate from international agreements, in nations with less concern for the rule of law, officials are far less troubled by such scruples. Not the least *such nation is Germany.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/eamonnfingleton/2013/10/27/hang-in-there-barack-four-good-reasons-to-keep-bugging-merkels-phone/?partner=yahootix