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Abstract
The article explores and explains Germany’s pre-emptive ‘No’ to the war in Iraq and argues that the ‘No’ was not a structural break in the relationship with the US, although for many its dramatic consequences appeared as a ‘parting of ways’ of two close allies. With the European Union deeply divided and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization split into two camps, the result was a profound disunity of the West. After the war in Kosovo and the German military contribution to the ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan, there was no chance that the SPD/Green coalition would have been able to put together its own majority for an additional war effort in Iraq. Opposing a perceived US unilateralism was popular and an opportunity to stand up to the Bush administration. On a more fundamental level, Germany reclaimed the right to national sovereignty in spite of its commitment to multilateralism. This self-assertion was a new development for German foreign policy and it will also characterise Germany’s actions in the future. With the arrival of the Trump administration in Washington and its challenge to the liberal world order America created after World War II, the US and Germany could end up on an even more profound collision course.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dieter Dettke is Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and a Senior Fellow of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in Washington, DC. He served as the US Representative and Executive Director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Washington from 1985 until 2006. In 2006 and 2007 he was a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and working on his book Germany Says ‘No’: The Iraq War and the Future of German Foreign and Security Policy. He is author of numerous articles and book chapters on US, German and European political, economic and security issues as well as the book Allianz im Wandel; and also served as editor and author of The Spirit of the Berlin Republic. His most recent works are Hungary’s Jobbik Party, the Challenge of European Ethno-Nationalism and the Future of the European Project, published in 2014, and Germany: From the Ashes of War to the Center of Power in Europe, published in 2016. He studied Law and Political Science in Bonn and Berlin, Germany and in Strasbourg, France. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Washington in Seattle in 1967/68.
Notes
† The article draws on earlier works of the author on Germany’s foreign and security policy in the context of the Iraq war. See in particular Germany Says ‘No’. The Iraq War and the Future of German Foreign and Security Policy (Washington, DC: The Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009).
1 See in particular in that volume the common appeal of Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida, ‘Der 15. Februar oder: Was die Europäer verbindet’, pp.43–51.
2 See the text of the Joint Franco German Declaration, 22 Jan. 2003, available from http://www.leforum.de/de/de-traite-declcommune03.htm (accessed 8 June 2017).
3 See the text of the letter published by the BBC, available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2708877.stm (accessed 8 June 2017).
4 See the EU Observer, 6 Feb. 2003, available from https://euobserver.com/enlargement/9269 (accessed 8 June 2017).
5 George W. Bush interpreted Schröder’s position as driven by the 2002 German elections. See Bush (2010, 234).
6 See in particular the speech of Gerhard Schröder opening the final phase of the 2002 electoral campaign in Hannover, 5 Aug. 2002.
7 See the speech of Gerhard Schröder opening the 2002 electoral campaign in Hannover, 5 Aug. 2002.
8 Henry Kissinger delivered a strong criticism of the new political generation in Germany. See his article on ‘The “Made in Berlin” Generation’ in the Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2002, available from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2002/10/30/the-made-in-berlin-generation/09ea8c75-f82f-4139-ae60-9f5e665d131c/?utm_term=.087f67f90ad1 (accessed 8 June 2017).
9 See the text available from http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btp/14/14003.pdf (accessed 8 June 2017).
10 See detailed information about the declaration in Dettke (Citation2009, 148/149).
11 The most important pioneering contributions on civilian power came from François Duchéne, a former director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. A comprehensive publication is Kohnstamm and Kohnstamm (Citation1973). It includes an article by François Duchéne. In Germany Hanns Maull and his research colleagues at Trier University contributed the best studies on the role of civilian power for German foreign policy. See in particular Maull and Harnisch (Citation2001).
12 See in particular the information provided by Gendercide, available at http://www.gendercide.org/case_srebrenica.html (accessed 8 June 2017).
13 On the strategy of Serbianisation see Gow (Citation2003, 57).
14 ‘Nous sommes tous Americains’ read the front page headline of Le Monde, 12 Sept. 2001.
15 Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder in his formal government declaration in the Bundestag on 12 Sept. 2001. See Deutscher Bundestag, 14. Wahlperiode, Plenarprotokoll 14/186, 12 Sept. 2001.
16 Prime Mister Blair on 12 Sept. 2001 as quoted in the Report of the Iraq Inquiry (Chilcot Report), Executive Summary (Crown Copyright, 2016) Number 48, p.10.
17 Text of the speech available from https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/apr/08/foreignpolicy.iraq (accessed 8 June 2017).
18 The note to President Bush of 28 July 2002 is mentioned in the Chilcot Report, number 94, p.15.
19 See the text of the mandate Deutscher Bundestag, Drucksache 14/7296, 14. Wahlperiode, 7 Nov. 2001, available from http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/14/072/1407296.pdf (accessed 8 June 2017).
20 See the text of the speech of the Chancellor in the Bundestag, Deutscher Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 14/187, 187. Sitzung, 19 Sept. 2001.
21 See Text of the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq Enacted and Signed by the President, 16 Oct. 2002, 107th Congress, Public Law 243. Vote results available from http://usiraq.procon.org/view.additional-resource.php?resourceID=001987 (accessed 8 June 2017).
22 See the text of the vice president’s speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars 103rd National Convention, The Iraq Papers (Citation2010).
23 See the interview with Der Spiegel, 1 Oct. 2007, pp.56–57.
24 See the full text of the National Intelligence Estimate of October 2002, released 2014/12/09 CO1030196.
25 Ibid.
26 Condoleezza Rice in an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN on 10 Jan. 2003, available from http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/01/10/wbr.smoking.gun/ (accessed 10 Feb. 2017).
27 This assessment is also shared by Bruce Riedel, a high-ranking former US intelligence official in an interview with the author on 22 March 2017 at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.
28 See the text of the speech by Vice President Cheney at Veterans of Foreign Wars 103rd National Convention.
29 As reported by Reuters, 24 Oct. 2007, available from http://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-usa-funding-idUSN2450753720071024 (accessed 8 June 2017).
30 For additional much higher estimates see The Balance, 17 Jan. 2017, available from https://www.thebalance.com/cost-of-iraq-war-timeline-economic-impact-3306301, and Qiu (Citation2016).
31 See the text of Merkel’s Glueckwunsch Telegramm und Statement fuer die Presse, 9 Nov. 2016, available from https://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Artikel/2016/11/2016-11-09-merkel-zu-us-wahl-trump.html (accessed 8 June 2017).
32 Ibid.
33 This is what Teresa May proclaimed when triggering the EU’s Article 50 exit clause for Great Britain. See Financial Times, London, 30 March 2017, front page.
34 See Lionel Barber, ‘Juncker Tells Trump to Stop “Annoying” Praise for Brexit’, interview with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Financial Times, 24 March 2017.