Amid the recriminations and self-justification over allegations of US spying – yes, trust is needed between allies; yes, everyone is doing it – one vital lesson has been overlooked.
In Germany, the response to allegations that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone was tapped has been harsh and emotional. But Germans need to accept that their nation’s power and increasing foreign policy assertiveness come at a price. The era of standing on the international sidelines is over.
Most Germans quietly enjoy the status of “third most important country in the world”, as a former US ambassador to Berlin likes to put it. In the past decade and a half, the nation’s foreign policy has shown signs of unprecedented independent-mindedness. It strongly opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq, even at the cost of risking a transatlantic fallout – something it would have considered unthinkable only a few years earlier.