Crossing Borders: Experience Differences
By Alexandra Homolar-Riechmann

When I was attending high school, the anti-Americanism of Germany's young people that is so much under discussion today was not in evidence: the United States were popular, fascinated kids with their unlimited opportunities and the American "way of life," inspired teens with new trends in the most varied areas of life. Many of my classmates would have given the proverbial arm and a leg to be able to spend a year there on a student exchange. I felt differently; I never wanted to go to the United States.

A few months before my Abitur exams [finals] however, my parents came to me with seemingly good news: only a few days after receiving my final report cards I would be able to fly to the United States to take part there in a summer studies course in Boston. My first thought was NO! Everyone else, however, envied me.

I argued and resisted to no avail, and so eventually I landed at the Boston airport, without ever having had a real choice in the matter. For the first time there was an ocean separating me from all that was familiar, from the European lifestyle. I wanted nothing more than to get right back on the next plane home. However, curiosity won and so I finally boarded a cab (where I already encountered some difficulties in grasping exactly when it might be my turn to get into one of the waiting cabs) and drove, accompanied by the setting sun, through the humid city. And I was thrilled!

This early enthusiasm, the enchantment that this city put me under from the very first second I entered it was to be only the beginning: during my stay in Boston and Cambridge I encountered so much geniality and hospitality, had so many conversations with interesting and intelligent people that the two months in the United States just flew by while at the same time presenting me with such unbelievably intense experiences and encounters as I could not have collected in two years at home. My much feared stay in the United States became an unforgettable experience, laying the foundation for the focus of my later studies in political science.

Today, after almost a decade I am back in the United States to get another close-up look at the only remaining superpower and perhaps revise my picture of it, a picture that was once all black, turned rosy in one fell swoop and finally, through my studies, became colorful -- as it now holds much that is positive and negative, many shadows but also a lot of light.

One thing, however, has changed completely: this time I was hardly envied for my big chance to spend five whole months here in the United States, two of these even in the "seat of power" -- Washington, D.C. In some ways, since the beginning of the Iraq war almost two years ago, this anti-American attitude has become somewhat representative, as a conspicuous skepticism regarding the (respective) other side of the Atlantic has become tangible and a mood that is often labeled anti-American or anti-George-W.-Bush is being discussed in Europe and also, or even especially, in Germany.

George W. Bush's first term now lies behind us and the American people have once again elected a president. This time they have unambiguously and with a clear majority chosen George W. Bush to be the "most powerful man in the world." What will this next term in office entail? Will it push the two sides of the Atlantic closer together again? Or will it pry them apart even farther?

President Bush's idealistic inaugural address about the unlimited power of freedom and the ultimate goal of the United States to end tyranny throughout the world offers some hope: a hope for more prudence not just in the choice of words but also in the conduct towards enemies and allies of the last remaining super power; a hope for an end to the deep divide not only between the two sides of the Atlantic but also within the deeply divided American nation itself.

Simultaneously, the very same speech causes the doubts concerning an improvement of the transatlantic relations -- and also about an American domestic reconciliation - to grow: will the United States, in the fulfillment of its mission to free the world from tyrants, now attack Iran? Will civil liberties, already pruned extensively by the Patriot Act, be forced in their own country to take a further backseat to the war on terror and the spreading of freedom in the world? How far is the old and new president prepared to go now that he no longer has an election to win and he sees his reelection as an endorsement of his leadership style and his policies in Iraq?

These are questions that only time can answer, or, as Todd S. Purdum writes in the New York Times on January 21, 2005, in his report on the president's inaugural address: "It is for historians to judge how well Mr. Bush's actions have fit, or may yet fulfill his words."

To what extent my own prejudices or expectations can be confirmed or refuted this time around will most likely also only become clear by the end of my visit to the United States. One thing however, has become clear already, even in the short amount of time I've spent here so far: it is of special, not to say crucial, importance to once again take up a complete different perspective.

My experiences from the first few weeks alone were, contrary to my worst fears - and as once before almost ten years ago -- very positive: in this country, U.S. politics are engaged with, discussed, and criticized much more and much more openly than I had expected. Above all, I was met with unbelievable warmth, helpfulness and patience here, not only in the think tanks and institutes that seem so exclusive from the perspective of distant Europe, but especially in the daily contact with colleagues, housemates and all the others who are at pains to ease my entry into the American daily life.

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Alexandra Homolar-Riechmann is a DAAD/AICGS Research Fellow working on an analysis of the American democratic decision-making process in Defense Policy. She will continue working on her project as a Visiting Researcher at Yale University from March through May 2005.

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This essay appeared in the January 27, 2005 AICGS Advisor.
It was translated from the original German by Sarah Fichter.