Messages In Mainz
By Dr. Jackson Janes

The first question directed at President Bush in Mainz during the press conference with Gerhard Schröder on February 23, 2005, was about a speech his father gave in the same city in May of 1989. In that speech, President H.W. Bush presented Germany with a challenge:

"The United States and the Federal Republic have always been firm friends and allies, but today we share an added role: partners in leadership." The reporter wanted to know if Bush 43 agreed with Bush 41. The president's answer was that the United States needs partners and Germany is one of the most important ones.

Comparing President George W. Bush's speech in Brussels this week with that of his father sixteen years earlier in Mainz shows some striking similarities. In 1989, the president stated that "leadership has a constant companion: responsibility. And our responsibility is to look ahead and grasp the promise of the future." And in words reminiscent of his son's 2005 inauguration speech, he proclaimed, "the passion for freedom cannot be denied forever. The world has waited long enough. The time is right. Let Europe be whole and free."

This week in Brussels, President Bush proclaimed that: "Spreading liberty for the sake of peace is the cause of all mankind. This approach not only reduces a danger to free peoples; it honors the dignity of all peoples, by placing human rights and human freedom at the center of our agenda. And our alliance has the ability, and the duty, to tip the balance of history in favor of freedom."

George W. Bush was addressing Germans and Europeans who have largely achieved the goal of a Europe whole and free. That reality is reflected in a European Union of twenty-five nations, and NATO now made up of twenty-six members spread across the continent, with more waiting to join both organizations. A unified Germany and the United States did act often as allies and friends, and as partners, in pursuing the enlargement of NATO, in creating the WTO, in eventually responding to the crisis in the Balkans, and in responding to the attacks on 9/11. There were also conflicts, the most serious of which was over Iraq. Yet the fact is that neither Germany nor the United States is the same country it was sixteen years ago.

The message from the first President Bush was delivered to a Germany very different from today. In 1989, Germany was on the verge of achieving its goal of unification and starting down an uncertain road towards integrating two halves of Germany into one. It was also facing the prospect of being the largest country in the European Union, wary of its imposing role and uncertain about the reaction of its neighbors. Talk about Germany being a partner in leadership with the United States was met with a nervous response. Unclear about its role in the EU, afraid of frightening its neighbors, yet also knowing that it carried major responsibilities in the shaping of Europe, the newly unified Germany was to be a limited partner with limited leadership.

Today, the situation looks different. Germany is more confident with its role as a leader within the EU and on the global stage. During the past decade, Germany has developed an enhanced sense of self-assurance in dealing with the United States within an EU framework. Germany is proposing that it be given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council with a veto. Recently, Chancellor Schröder called for a new definition of transatlantic relations, questioning whether NATO was the right forum for dealing with issues between the EU and the United States. The clash with the United States over Iraq appears to have actually strengthened the self-confidence of the chancellor. German public opinion, particularly with regard to dealing with Washington, seems to support him.

In this environment, George W. Bush came to Europe with a call to partnership in leadership with Germany and Europe, this time with the purpose of using the combined strength and capacity of the transatlantic alliance to generate the peaceful integration and stability in those areas of the world still waiting for freedom from poverty and fear, and for the opportunity to participate in global economic and political development on their own terms. In making that appeal, he remains confronted by a German public that is highly suspicious of the president's motives. Despite the best efforts of government officials tooling the visit, the scars of the Iraq conflict still run deep within German public opinion.

Emerging out of the clash over Iraq is a sobered sense of limits on both sides of the Atlantic. The American ability to use insurmountable military force does not translate into securing political stability where it is applied. The European efforts to offer alternatives to confronting threats and dangers are limited by resources and capabilities. At the same time, the combination of European and American capabilities across a whole range of issues provides a strong tool with which effective policies can achieve real results, be it with regard to Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East, Iran, Iraq, Africa or Asia, among many other platforms for cooperation.

There is an important message for both Americans and Germans in finding common ground, a message that builds on the success of the end of the Cold War.

The legacy of Germany's unity includes the steady commitment by Americans and Germans to a shared purpose to overcome the burdens of a divided Germany and a divided Europe. That same commitment today can contribute to achieving the goals of peace and freedom elsewhere around the globe. Germany, a country which was able to gain the most from that commitment, also carries with it a special responsibility of helping to share its rewards with those still aspiring to them.

George W. Bush may not have changed a lot of minds in Mainz. But he did offer the same partnership his father called for in 1989. In order to make that work today, Germans and Americans need to act as leaders in partnership, sharing the responsibilities and the burden which go with that role.

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This essay appeared in the February 24, 2005 AICGS Advisor.