Of New Year's Resolutions
By Dr. Jackson Janes

Many Germans and Americans began the New Year with resolutions, promising themselves to accomplish a goal or improve a condition, whatever it may be. Yet the word "resolution" also means meeting a challenge, indeed finding the "solution" for a problem, i.e. resolving it. How many problems did we resolve last year and how many problems need resolutions in the New Year?

One of the major challenges Germany faces at home in the coming year is to find a way to resolve its economic woes. With unemployment climbing to record highs - some say headed for the five million mark - the challenges of achieving much needed economic growth remain imposing. Chancellor Schröder has resolved to make structural changes in the welfare system, and one of the first resolutions of the year is the introduction of the Hartz IV labor policies, which are aimed at encouraging people to find jobs and employers to offer them work.

Yet, as many people find when they begin the year determined to lose weight by getting more exercise and eating less, the initial discipline can wear off quickly in the face of powerful old habits and routines. The tendency is then to abandon resolutions and therefore postpone the real solution of the problem. In politics, the return to old habits and routines tends to be encouraged by elections. Germany has two important state elections in the next six months, in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia, both of which will tempt both government and opposition to avoid resolving long-term problems in order to win the shorter-term elections. Nevertheless, Chancellor Schröder's government so far appears resolved to lessen the burden of the country's costs of unemployment, social security and health care costs. But, as all post-holiday dieters know, it takes time and staying power to make a real difference.

Like the United States, Germany is also facing the need to resolve its social security dilemma. The pay-as-you-go system is sagging under the weight of ever more recipients with ever fewer workers paying in. To fix the system, resolve will have to be firm and lasting because -- again like the United States-- any effort to really carry through with reforms is bound to encounter enormous resistance from people who think the cure is worse than the problem. After all, the problems are not imminent, say the critics of reform. We can resolve this problem later, they argue. Yet the longer one waits, the more difficult it may be to achieve effective change. And quick fixes don't work when you want long-term solutions.

When problems that need to be resolved appear more immediate, more tangible, and more demanding, people can resolve to act. Germans have set records in personal donations to aid the relief efforts in Southeast Asia, just as Americans have responded with enormous acts of charity. The dramatic pictures of disaster can move people to take initiatives, even when they have no personal connection to the event. People resolve to help find or support solutions to a problem they can see clearly.

Yet when it comes to the problems of defining priorities, making sacrifices and changing habits closer to home, resolve tends to wane as the choices become harder, often confusing and perhaps discouraging.

After 9/11, a majority of Americans believed that the resolution of the problems of terrorism and conflict emerging out of the Middle East could be found in the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, and then, according to the Bush administration, the removal of Saddam Hussein. However, as we approach the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and see continuing terror and conflict there, many are left wondering about whether the administration's resolution in the face of that conflict is necessary or wise. When does resolve become resistant to reality?

A new year always offers a chance for renewal, a new start, a fresh beginning. But whether new resolutions can resolve problems depends on how realistic the desired reforms are. Making a resolution to win the lotto is not a promising one. Resolving to work harder and save money is a better bet for success.

But how to measure success sometimes remains ambiguous. Have we achieved real progress in Iraq when and if elections are held at the end of the month? Is the recent Palestinian election a benchmark of success in the direction of peace in the Middle East? Are the EU negotiations with Turkey, which will begin in the fall of 2005, a major step for the transformation of Europe? Is the upcoming trip of President Bush to Europe a signal that transatlantic relations are being renewed to confront common challenges?

Or will old habits revert to confrontation and conflict?

When the President and Chancellor Schröder get together again in Germany in a few weeks, perhaps they should talk about their respective resolutions for the New Year. They may find that they have a lot in common. Whether it is social security or homeland security, the Middle East or the Balkans, they should both be similarly committed to do what is needed to resolve these problems, among many others. The question is: will they resolve to work on them together?

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This essay appeared in the January 12, 2005 AICGS Advisor.