Weblifedata News and Magazine
Donald Trump’s election as US president has been called “a nail in the coffin of the liberal world order.” What can German Chancellor Angela Merkel do to make sure that coffin isn’t buried?
“The times in which we could completely depend on others are, to a certain extent, over,” admitted a disappointed Angela Merkel at the G7 summit in Italy last May. At the time, it was clear that United States President Donald Trump had made up his mind to pull out of the Paris climate accord. One year after Trump took office, Germany’s chancellor must feel even more abandoned still.
In the past, US-German relations were consistently close; now, one is just hoping that better days will return. Political scientist Josef Braml of the German Council on Foreign Relations says those hopes are in vain. “Trump doesn’t think the liberal world order serves America’s interests, rather, it simply helps ‘copycats’ like Germany and China,” he said. Therefore, the US president has one simple aim: “to destroy that order.”
Read more: The economy, stupid? Trump’s first year
That, of course, has negative consequences for trans-Atlantic relations. “Everything is a zero-sum game with Trump,” said Braml. “The US has to win, and everyone else has to lose.”
Source : DW.com
