Not a friend, not an ally – I – the times, they are a-changing, fast …

Yesterday morning I started to write a post on what the so called “peace negotiations” between the US and Putin may mean for Europe. But I stopped it, because I thought: Let us wait and see what really happens. Trump has shown enough erratic actions before. But the last statements from the “leader of the free world” regarding the Crimea did not let me sleep calmly.

Obviously, I was not the only one. Remarkably, a conservative and in the past always US-friendly German newspaper, namely the FAZ, has used and uses stronger words than I would have dared to write in public texts. See

The current developments in the US make people like me in Germany more than nervous. But, we need to come to terms with it quickly. Both on a political and a private level We Europeans, but Germany in particular, urgently needs to develop a sustainable political strategy for the next decade – without the US as a partner. We need a strategy in which we may even regard the US as a potential adversary.

This is certainly a very uncomfortable exercise for the next German government. But also we as European and German citizens must prepare for consequences.

A first step of dealing with a new reality is to call things what they are. This is what I want to write about in this and the next posts. As I am getting relatively old, parts of my considerations will include looks into the past to mark some points which, in my opinion, provided some lessons for today’s situation.

An important point of my personal concern is that the present reckless decisions of the US government let Europe glide on a slope into a potentially dark future. On short timescales, there is no smooth transition that some politicians in Germany – both in the spectrum of conservatives and social democrats – may have hoped for.

I would even say: The present decisions of the US government underline and confirm that NATO is already dead. Trump tramps onto old alliances, on common values and past common understandings. He looks upon politics as some game like monopoly. He disregards even contracts the US has written under some years ago.

Unfortunately, we have to concede that the present mess is the result of an election. As Trump might say: This is part of what I was elected for. This does, however, not make it better for us in Europe.

But, to express some criticism also in our own direction:
We have seen the warning signs – and we, the Europeans, but in particular the German governments since Schröder, have not drawn the right conclusions. We were lazy, we clang to old habits, to a very convenient lazy attitude regarding critical developments during an assumed period of prosperity. We ignored potential interest conflicts both with the US, Russia and even within Europe. To make it short:

We have not build a strategy covering the present situation. “We” includes the German citizens, in particular the so called intellectual class, too, not only the government.

A free, democratic and united Europe in a partnership with the US and other parts of the world was what my generation has politically dreamed of. This dream is actually shattered into pieces. By the actions of our previously most important ally.

Enough reason, even for a private person, to write about this situation – in my case from the perspective of a man growing old and who would rather focus on problems in physics or AI. I apologize for coming reflections on my personal past. But the twists and turns of a political aware person are sometimes necessary for honesty and an upright walk to new considerations, opinions and convictions.

Who do I regard as my readers? Well, first of all friends in Germany and Norway. But, I hope that some US citizens will hopefully get the impression that their old democratic allies watch carefully what happens on the other side of the Atlantic. In the end we will need the solidarity of all democratic forces on both sides of the Atlantic and a common strong will to defend our values and our democracies against their enemies – external ones and internal ones. In this sense it may be part of an exchange of thoughts on the level of concerned citizens.

In the next post of this series, I will look back on some key experiences in my personal past – which, in my opinion, have a connection with today’s political developments: There is a deep aversion of broad civic layers in developed complex societies against critical thoughts and so called leftist intellectuals questioning established living habits and respective simple reaction patterns towards new and unfamiliar challenges.

Stay tuned …