Germany’s growing leadership within Europe has made it a direct target of US accusations over global diplomacy, according to Zhao Ke, an associate professor at the Institute for International Strategic Studies of the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China, writing for
The Beijing News.
Germany has been more active than previously in seeking the leadership of Europe, which the scholar believes is the result of Germany’s move to balance between globalization and European integration, Zhao said.
Germany’s strong industrial capacity and its export-oriented economy has given the country both the strong ability and wish to allocate resources globally, according to Zhao. It has also been actively integrating into Europe in an attempt to strengthen political credibility and guarantee its security.
But globalization and regional integration sometimes yield conflicting interests. That’s why Germany sometimes has to refrain from pursuing global trade benefits and instead focus on maintaining the credibility of the EU’s foreign strategy.
The European debt crisis in 2009 has significantly changed the power balance within the EU. Germany has quickly risen to higher ranks in Europe, which led the country’s foreign policy to notably lean toward the interests of the EU. As traditional EU powers, the UK and France have weakened economically and the existence of the EU itself is being questioned. Therefore, Germany has thrown itself into the breach, said the scholar.
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