Germany is a bad ally
Biden and Blinken may associate acquiescence to Berlin with sophisticated diplomacy and may assume that Germany stands for the same values as the United States, but this would be a mistake. Simply put, Germany is neither a good ally nor does its leadership share the same liberal, democratic worldview as the United States.
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel’s immediate predecessor, joined Gazprom after leaving office. For Schröder, short-term monetary gain trumped principle. Increasingly, his career trajectory and cynicism may be the rule rather than the exception for German politicians as Russia and the money it offers encourages further “Schröderization” of German elites. Russian spy activity is as high now as it was during the Cold War as the Kremlin seeks to penetrate the German political class.
Matthias Warnig, the Nord Stream 2 CEO for whom Blinken waived sanctions, was a former East German Stasi officer since the time when Russian President Vladimir Putin was a KGB officer assigned to Germany and remains Putin’s oldest German friend. Biden and Blinken shed crocodile tears for imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, but they ignore that one of the reasons Putin is so furious at Navalny is that he blew the whistle on Putin’s relationship with the Nord Stream 2 CEO.
Nor is Nord Stream 2 simply a one-off economic deal. Moscow and Berlin are now cooperating on a hydrogen project.
Within the United States, some have rationalized a softer approach toward Nord Stream 2 in order to compel Germany to be a better ally in efforts to counter Russia. Put aside the fact that Germany continues to fall short of its NATO commitment to spend two percent of its gross domestic product on defense in order to shore up the alliance. But, as Ricky Gill, a former director for European Energy Security at the National Security Council shows, Germany increasingly allows China to utilize the Port of Mukran, the base of operations for Nord Stream 2 construction, as a key component of its Belt-and-Road scheme. Initial concerns about the cost of empowering Russia have, meanwhile, proven correct. It took less than a month for Putin to threaten Ukraine’s access to Russian gas after Blinken waived sanctions.
Nor has Germany fallen short as an ally only on the issue of Russia. Since the time of German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, Berlin has consistently allowed the promise of commercial contracts to undermine consensus with regard to Iran’s nuclear program and Iran’s horrendous abuse of human rights. Both Schröder and Merkel have consistently turned a blind eye or even sought to bury intelligence showing Iranian cheating on its nuclear commitments in order to augment Germany’s own commercial relations. The leader of Germany’s Green Party high-fived the Islamic Republic’s ambassador even as Iran arrested environmentalists and hanged homosexuals. More recently, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier congratulated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the fortieth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, even as Khamenei belittled the Holocaust.
