The U.S.’s Best German Ally? The Greens
Anybody who would have predicted that the Green Party would ever become the U.S.’s best political ally in Germany would have been described as insane.
March 10, 2024
If anybody had predicted that there would ever come a time when the Green Party – a junior partner in the current German government – would become the United States’ best ally in German politics, that person would surely have been described as having lost his or her mind.
Remember the Greens anti-American roots?
The reason why the mere possibility of a wide-ranging, de facto alliance with Washington almost seems implausible is the Green Party’s strongly anti-American roots.
In their founding days in Germany back in the early 1980s, the Greens’ strong opposition to U.S. nuclear arms policies were one of the main drivers that gave rise to their political emergence.
At the time, the Greens were widely considered a leading anti-American force in German politics.
Much like the Biden administration
No longer. Much like the Biden administration, the Greens strongly embrace values of freedom, democracy and human rights.
In line with the Biden team, they are also resolute in standing firm against cozying-up in any form or fashion to Putin’s Russia or Xi’s China.
Both the Greens and the Biden administration also strongly emphasize promoting green growth as a potent economic force.
Devoted to Ukraine
The Greens’ courage on foreign policy is best exemplified by their unequivocal support for the Ukrainians’ fight for freedom.
Putin’s brutal invasion led the party to abandon one of its most cherished principles – opposing arms deliveries into conflict zones.
Too pro-American now?
These days, in a remarkable turnaround, the Greens are viewed as too much in bed with the Americans – and as outright anti-Chinese.
This charge stems from the fact that the Green Party’s two senior ministers in the Scholz government, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, the Economy and Climate Change Minister, are both pushing for a firm German approach to China policy.
Battleground China
The two ministers are very much in line with the China-related efforts by the Biden administration.
In particular, they are doing everything in their power to highlight Chinese human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and screen inbound and outbound German investments in order to limit technology flows to China. Chancellor Scholz and his SPD resist those efforts forcefully.
Irrepressible German mercantilism
Just as his predecessor Angela Merkel, Chancellor Scholz bends to Beijing largely for reasons of mercantilism.
Under that approach, protecting Germany’s export interests ranks above all other considerations. Security concerns are given short shrift.
It is as if the lesson of serious risks to German national security due to cozily – indeed blindly – dealing with Russia, in that case on energy, have not been learned with regard to China.
The SPD’s dreams of “equidistance”
This ultimately reflects an ill-guided determination to pursue the pipedream of “equidistance” in the U.S.-China-Russia triangle.
Quite self-serving commercially and dishonest politically, this policy stance is then presented as evidence of Germany’s – and Europe’s – “strategic autonomy.”
Germany as the “other” Middle Empire?
The camp of those who apparently view Germany as the “other” Middle Empire is by no means limited to the SPD.
In an act of stunning self-delusion and grandiosity, these forces believe that, like China, Germany can do as it pleases.
These forces include a large part of the German business community, especially among the DAX companies. And, certainly under Merkel, it included the CDU/CSU.
The Greens and “Westbindung”
The Greens take a different viewpoint. Remarkably, they are opting firmly in favor of what was once called “Westbindung” (= firm Western orientation).
After the Second World War, there was a big debate in Germany about whether or not the newly established democratic country should embed itself in the Western camp, or whether it should drift between East and West.
At the time, Konrad Adenauer, Germany’s first post-war Chancellor and a long-time icon of the CDU, resolutely opted for integration into the West.
More than any other German political party (including Adenauer’s own CDU!), the German Greens now embrace the Adenauer tradition.
Jimmy Carter must be smiling at this
The close similarity in worldview of the Biden administration in the United States and the Greens in Germany must also bring a big smile to the face of the now 99-year-old Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States.
In his own days in the Oval Office between January 20, 1977 and January 20, 1981, he was considered naïve for his determination to embrace human rights, democracy and environmentalism as guiding principles.
Decades before the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2015, Carter was adamant about tackling pollution and energy waste and putting environmental issues front and center.
Mr. Carter must feel vindicated by how much, four decades after he left the White House, the Biden administration in the United States and the Greens in Germany embrace his policy priorities.
Takeaways
Anybody who would have predicted that the Green Party would ever become the U.S.’s best political ally in Germany would have been described as insane.
The Greens are the political force in Germany that is by far closest in its policy outlook to that of the Biden administration in the U.S.
Much like the Biden administration, the Greens strongly embrace values of freedom, democracy and human rights and oppose any cozying-up to Putin’s Russia or Xi’s China
In their founding days in the early 1980s, the Greens were widely considered a leading anti-American force in German politics.
In a remarkable turnaround, the Greens are viewed these days as too much in bed with the Americans – and as outright anti-Chinese.
Too many Germans in business and politics pursue the pipedream of “equidistance” in the U.S.-China-Russia triangle. They try to sell this policy stance as evidence of Germany’s – and Europe’s – “strategic autonomy.”
The German devotees of mercantilism apparently view their country much like China -- as the world’s “other” Middle Empire.
Jimmy Carter must feel vindicated by how much, four decades after he left the While House, the Biden administration in the U.S. and the Greens in Germany subscribe to his policy priorities.
