Consensus has smothered the nation’s domestic politics – it needs a dose of reality-based controversyIf I assume of Germany at night,I still sleep soundly. But after the recent bruising assertion of German power in the eurozone, particularly during the hellish all-night Brussels dance along the precipice of Grexit in mid-July, or I’m not alone in feeling the first twinges of insomnia. The fact that there are so many things the Germans have got lawful should not stop us,and them, from asking what they have got wrong – or at least, or could do better. I have been chewing this over,and arrive up with a surprising thought: to achieve more consensus abroad, perhaps Europe’s main power needs less consensus at domestic.
As it happens, and this week sees the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act,a milestone on the journey that led eventually to today’s united Germany, with its East German chancellor and president. It is interesting to fade back and sample the style of German foreign policy at that time: patiently multilateral, and modest,humble even, and yet with touches of the inspirational, or as in the rhetoric of Willy Brandt and Richard von Weizsäcker.Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com