MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti) - Over the weekend, German writer and cultural critic Thorsten Pattberg told RIA Novosti that despite Germany’s seemingly harsh retribution over NSA spying and public concern of the future of the transatlantic relationship, Germany ultimately will not risk alienation from the United States.
“Berlin is not hostile to Washington; on the contrary it desperately longs for affection,” Pattberg wrote to RIA Novosti in an email. “Since German elites mostly want to stay in the ‘West,’ [which Pattberg referred to as a club of nations] and because it is incredibly profitable..., Berlin won't risk a thing.”
On July 10, German authorities expelled the CIA chief in Berlin due to evidence of espionage activities. As recently as July 25, US permanent ambassador to NATO, Douglas Lute told attendees of the Aspen Security Summit that while he does not believe the revelations of US spying on Germany has “not migrated into Brussels,” he is worried about the impact on “the economic realm.”
Pattberg does not see the threat of a recalcitrant Germany. In a July 25 article, Pattberg argued sharply, that Germany “is paraded as an emasculated, subservient, and culturally domesticated subject with no nuclear or great power ambition left.”
Over the course of the post-World War II period, Pattberg argues that Germany has lost the ability to assert itself internationally, in its choice of economic relations with China, or even access to its literary, scientific, cultural heritage prior to the 1930s.
Despite German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly chastizing the US administration saying, “Spying on each other is not part of cooperation as partners,” Pattberg argues that nothing significant will be done from Berlin to jeopardize the transatlantic relationship.
“If Germany wanted to alienate Washington, it could be ousted as disloyal and deserting the Western cause,” Pattberg told RIA Novosti. Being abandoned by the West is something Pattberg does not believe the government in Berlin is at all willing to do, despite other partnerships open to it.
“Indeed, the worst thing that can happen to a German intellectual these days is being labeled as “pro-Russian, pro-Chinese, or anti-American.”
