In an era of Russian revanchism, the cracks in the US German relations are particularly concerning. Angela Merkel’s decision to announce the expulsion of the CIA’s Berlin station chief over the US’s recruitment of a German intelligence officer shows just how bad things have got.
It is not just German elite opinion that is turning against the US. The Financial Times today reports that polling shows that Germans would prefer to increase ties with China than the US. Now, given that Beijing is an authoritarian government that would have no qualms about spying on anyone, this is not an entirely rational response. But it does reveal the poor state of the trans-Atlantic alliance.
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