U.S. — GERMANY RELATIONS UNDER THE PRESIDENCY OF BARACK OBAMA

Abstract

Under the presidency of Barack Obama, the bilateral relations between the US and Germany deteriorated, but not fundamentally, and they are still quite strong. Germany still remains one of the main partners of the US in the EU and the NATO; and the economic relations continue to develop.
However, stances of the two countries on certain political issues such as the conflicts in the Middle East or the Ukrainian crisis are different, and spy scandals marred the confidence of the Germans in the US government. If the new White House administration does not fundamentally change the US foreign policy, it is possible that tensions between Washington and Berlin will grow. There are quite a number of German politicians who believe that Germany is a satellite
of the United States and that for them it is unprofitable to follow in the American wake, because through it, in their view, Europe is marginalized globally, becoming such a 106 region as it was during the Cold War — an object of Soviet- American relations. The spy scandals have also increased the number of supporters of “anti-Americanism” in Germany and of improving the relations with Moscow.