Why Secretary of State Kerry is wrong on Germany’s leadership.

Yesterday, The American Secretary of State John Kerry lauded Germany for its “exemplary leadership”.
http://euobserver.com/foreign/119208

I respectfully disagree and here is why. Germany is not a leader in Europe. Except from an economic standpoint, that is! Before anyone gets overly edgy over that statement, rest assured that there are reasons why this is the case and these make up for the fact itself as I will show but still, Germany leads itself mostly and not much else!

A leader leads in three ways : having the abilities and/or knowledge to decide, resting its moral authority on example ( past or present ) recognized by most of those that follow and lastly, by taking care of all under its leadership. If you lack one of these traits, sooner or later, the group which you supposedly lead will cleave, split up. If your authority is not recognized, dissent will rise and orders will end up poorly executed or disregarded altogether. If your abilities are in doubt, so will the value of your ideas and advice. And if you forget to care for all, those left behind and some of the rest will grow to mistrust your judgement.

Germany has shown abilities to better itself and its economy shows the Nation to be strong. That cannot be disputed. The difficult conditions that it faced since the Second World War including reunification with its impoverished Eastern half make that worthy of praise and proof of a high level of dedication and hard work. My argumentation is not based on ignorance of that.
So check abilities on the above list.

The second point however is already suspect or very disputable. In order to have moral authority, one should be able to transfer or lend the abilities it possesses to those under its command or care!
Germany has fixed most of its woes for sure and did so under conditions that would have hindered or scared many lesser nations which I already acknowledged to be true but this does not imply that its model could be exported per se. Part of the reasons for this stem from a historical perspective throughout the last 150 years.
As I presented in a past post :

Other nations have been Island Nations for given periods of their history; Germany for instance. After a second French invasion, Napoléon Bonaporte replacing Guillaume de Normandie, a grouping of feodal states with a very old common background came back to a unified concept of nation. In due time, this was to isolate Germans from the rest of Europe in splendid isolation so that it could be said that between 1871 and 1944, over both the Second and Third Reich, Germany was an Island Nation up to the horrific results of WW II.
 https://dlofr.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/gp-island-nations-the-uk-the-us-hum-the-vatican/

Let me now add a view of the years since WW II. As Deutschland ( Germany’s name in its own language ) emerged from the Nazi nightmare, it found itself in a unique situation very much akin to that of an individual having committed a crime out of character and shaken to the core of its otherwise moral being by the understanding of the improper nature of its actions and consequences thereof. That stigma burdened the national identity up to first, the passing of the relay to a younger generation exempt of the fault of its elders and second, the reunification of the country. The long process in question, while showing moral strength and insuring in the long term that there is a possibility of leadership being assumed by the German societal construct, still lingers if at minima. In that respect, Germany has been somewhat of an GP Island Nation since the war albeit for a totally different factor than it was before the Nazi hiatus.

In addition, it can be pondered if things would have gone so fast without the help of France through the Franco-German Friendship of which we celebrated the 50th anniversary recently. This does not detract the accomplishments listed above but should not be forgotten as it most probably shortened the recovery of the German State’s collective psyche for which Chancellor Adenauer and General De Gaulle  will never be thanked enough.

Click on pic for source.

The incredible picture of François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl holding hands over the commemoration of the soldiers of both Nations fallen at Verdun during the First World War remains one of the rare moments in my life when i was unabashedly proud to be a human being as it established a bridge over the hiatus mentioned above and provided solace as well as freeing the German people for good of the blemish thus allowing them to turn confidently towards the future. Saying so does not  lessen the German revival, only complements it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/22/50-years-elysee-germany-france

Other aspects of this renewed friendship in fact allow us to go into the last part of this reflection for amongst other joint ventures of worth brought about under its auspices, one finds the Franco-German Brigade. This military collaboration is already past the quarter century mark and yet, and yet it has never been used. The peculiarities of post WW II Deutschland include a voluntary non-interventionist stance on the armed forces side of things that for long saw it forbid itself to send troops outside of the country. While this has now been overcome and while Germany along with another long time foe, Poland are the two best allies to aforementioned France on the way to a possible Europe Defence endeavour, it did in a recent example mean that Germany was painfully slow in sending troops to Mali.

The present best offering on the Old Continent ( as seen from Secretary Kerry’s side of the Pond ) was ratified in Lancaster House between France and the UK, for now the only other local nation with the means and will to act quickly and decisively in such instances or matters. That is the present best in military leadership that Europe has to offer, period. Recent cuts in defence spending in Germany confirm that.
https://ip-journal.dgap.org/en/blog/eye-europe/who-cares-about-eu-defense-policy

Coming back as we near closing this reflection to economics, Germany is a valid example for sure contributing more than its share to the EU’s budget. Although, without being too squeamish, this cannot be followed by all? Greece and Italy show that clearly? France is on hot coals itself in that respect and the future is as uncertain as the validity of the experts’ opinions in the realm of finance? Germans have an aging population that forces an influx of immigrants to fill the market.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/elite-young-immigrants-could-provide-future-stability-for-german-economy-a-885647.html
And if recent actions should bring in skilled people to fix that problem,    the ones already there as second generation are on average awarded basic laborer jobs which while usual almost everywhere is compounded by the absence of a national minimum wage? In the  USA, it accounts for 6% of the workforce which you can guess affects the 20% of Germans that spring from immigrants’ descent? As much as the bad view in which they are held by the “original Deutsche”?
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/immigration-survey-shows-alarming-lack-of-integration-in-germany-a-603588.html
http://www.dw.de/german-population-rises-thanks-to-immigration/a-16525083
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/14/business/global/minimum-wage-in-europe-offers-ammunition-in-us-debate.html?_r=1&
http://www.thelocal.de/society/20121217-46815.html#.US_S60bJoT9
http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/12/germany-grapples-with-diversity/

So? So that with all the respect that I have for Secretary Kerry, could it be that his tongue slipped? He might not have meant that Germany’s leadership in or of Europe was exemplary but more simply that on the whole, Deutschland was an example for Europe? Because with that, I’d have little qualms.
And if the difference is not clear to any of my readers, stay tune in the next few days for a specific post on the importance of precise definitions of words.
You can always come back to this piece afterwards. 😎

In the meanwhile, Guten Tag und auf die nächste, Tay.

http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2010.htm