The Transatlantic Relationship

Introduction

Cultural Diplomacy has gained its existence through practical means for centuries. It is an innovative and vibrant academic field of research, and has established itself successfully in a theoretical and practical way. The term ‘’Cultural Diplomacy’’ is a newly established term however, there is much evidence of its presence and functional practice throughout history. Individuals such as travellers, explorers, teachers, artists and traders could be considered as informal ambassadors or diplomats who spread Cultural Diplomacy across the world, promoting its importance and developing its effectiveness. In order to facilitate a cultural exchange in a country, there is a need of any individual who can interact with, and facilitate exchange between, different cultures. This specific cultural exchange would be implemented in fields such as sports, music, art, science, economy, business or anything that involves interactions with others such as the exchange of interests and ideas, sharing values and communicating through different languages. These actions aim to improve relations between dissimilar groups of people and therefore countries.The importance of Cultural Diplomacy in the world is enormous in terms of communication between countries and exchange of the views that each of them contain. Cultural Diplomacy is critical to fostering peace and stability throughout the world. After studying its existence in more depth, and by applying it to all the possible circumstances it can influence, Cultural Diplomacy has an ability to influence the Global Public Opinion and individual’s ideology, as well as the values held by communities, cultures and nations. Importance of Cultural Diplomacy in the Transatlantic region

In terms of Transatlantic Relations, the importance of Cultural Diplomacy is highly significant. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a trade agreement that is presently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States. In a time of transition, characterized by a shift from the traditional paradigm, the emergence of new powers, as well as an increase of interdependence amongst nations, Transatlantic Relations seem to be lacking relevance. Once could say that the recent war in Iraq in 2003triggered the most severe transatlantic tensions of our generation, dividing Europeans and North Americans from each other and between themselves. Pundits proclaim daily the imminent collapse of three vital pillars in the institutional architecture of world politics: NATO the UN and even EU. Despite this, Transatlantic Relations are merely a conglomerate of political, defense, and economic ties and treaties, but also a complex relationship shaped by deeper shared values, cultivated through time and shared history. With the end of the Cold War and the enlargement of the European Union, new patterns of migration, and therefore, new demographics and cultural ‘memory’ in North America, and in Europe, developed. Globalization, the sustained communications revolutions, recent geo-political stances and military ventures have, however, been among the changes which have eroded that sense of mutual necessity and esteem. Cultural Diplomacy as a form of soft power seeks to facilitate the exchange of ideas, information, art, and other aspects of culture with the intention to foster mutual understanding at various levels: public, private but in also civil societies. It is in fact though Cultural Diplomacy that intercultural dialogue may be fostered and a substantial level of trust may be created to overcome problems faced in Transatlantic Relations.

Case study on the relational development of the USA and Germany

In this section we will compare the relations of the United States of America with Germany. We decided to follow the categories which can be found on the homepage of the Federal Foreign Office of Germany and the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. The three main categories are the following: political, economical and cultural development between the two countries. We will give a brief overview of the diplomatic development between the U.S. and Germany and show how relations shifted towards more and deeper cultural diplomacy based approach between the two nations.The first relations between the United States and Germany started with economic and trade agreements. At the beginning of the 19th century, Germany did not exist in its current form so the first economic agreement was with Prussia. On June 1st 1797, John Quincy Adams was nominated by U.S. President John Adams to serve as the Minister to Prussia. This was temporary, but in 1835 Henry Wheaton was appointed by President Andrew Jackson. Germany already established its representation in 1817 and the first Minister to the USA was Friedrich von Greuhm. This was the era of hard power and realism, but signs of traditional diplomacy also began to emerge. During World War I, the United States initially followed and isolationist policy, but eventually joined the Allied powers. The relations between the German Empire and USA started to decline when the German Navy attacked U.S. trade ships, causing material and human casualties to the U.S. The last drop was when intelligent services captured the so called ”Zimmerman Telegraph“, a top secret message sent from the German Empire to Mexico regarding a request to enter the war in case U.S. decides to intervene in Europe. This was the catalyst which brought America into the war and on April 6th 1917, President Wilson declared a state of war between U.S. and Germany. After World War I, on December 10th 1921, a full diplomatic relationship has been restored.During World War II, the relations between USA and Germany grew worse. When Germany’s allies,Japan, attacked the U.S. fleet based at Pearl Harbor, the U.S was dragged into the conflict. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, American forces were one of the occupation powers in postwar Germany. The role of the U.S:in the rebuilding of Germany was significant. The goals of the U.S. were widespread: denazification, "industrial disarmament“, and the promotion of U.S. culture in Germany. Between 1948–1949, the Berlin Airlift, and the Marshall Plan from 1948–1952, helped to stabilize the relations between the two countries.

In West-Germany, the values of the West, such as liberal thinking, democracy, rock & roll, jazz, clothing trends and U.S. products, were strongly promoted, while in East-Germany, the values of the USSR were promoted, like strict political supervision, labor movements,and later on with limitations on jazz and rock music.The emergence of the Cold War made the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) the frontier of a democratic Western Europe and the American military presence became an integral part in West German society. Soviet presence, and the subsequently GDR regime, became integral feature in the East Germany. During the Cold War, West Germany developed into the largest economy in Europe and West German-U.S. relations developed into a new transatlantic partnership. Germany and the U.S. shared a large portion of their culture, established an intensive global trade environment and continued to co-operate on new technologies. However, the German-American cooperation wasn't always free of tensions, of which were between differing approaches on both sides of the Atlantic.The rebuilding of Europe after World War 2 had long meant that politics had priority over culture. However, young people from both sides of divided Germany recognized that cultural relations can become „people- by other means“, rather than a substitute for politics. Perception and reception of American popular culture should be seen as one the crucial developments in the Cold war era. The wide reaching influence of American popular culture is evident not least in the emergence of the concept of postmodernism. Official American cultural policy influenced relations between two countries into the 1950s, but after that played only a minor role.

Two developments dominated cultural contacts by the end of the 1960s: firstly, liberalized transatlantic business contacts ensured that cultural exchange was directed by privately organized cultural and academic contacts and secondly, American entertainment industry succeeded in fastening the American presence in everyday culture in Germany, especially in the spheres of music, film and television. Jazz music and subsequently rock’n’roll started to be on a political cross fires, from both sides- East and West Germany. In the beginning, East German authorities harassed jazz fans, while West Germans criticized publicly that behavior. In West Germany case, jazz music was declared as music of the West German army, according to Franz-Joseph Strauß, West German minister of defense. It is clearly visible how American culture is highly integrated in both German states, something that Iron curtain could not stop.In the 21st century, the relations between Germany and USA started to shaken after the Snowden case. Edward Snowden pointed out how the NSA and the USA is spying on its allies, and as a reaction Germany cancelled the 1968 intelligence sharing agreement.

Globally, the two nations' economies are mutually important to each other, in the areas of both investment and trade: 50% of German foreign direct investment goes to the United States. German investment in the United States amounts to over 100 billion Euros. German companies employ over 800,000 people in subsidiaries in the United States and U.S. companies have the same number of employees in Germany. This makes Germans the third largest group of foreign employers (after Canada and the United Kingdom) and the United States’ largest inter-continental foreign employer in Germany. The negotiation process started between the EU and USA in July 2013. Both sides would benefit economically, the EU’s economy would increasingly 120 billion Euros, the US economy by 90 billion Euros and the rest of the world would profit by 100 billion Euros. According to the research which was published by IFO Institute, it was predicted that the effect of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership can create up to 110,000 new jobs in Germany,around 400,000 in the EU, while in the USA about 100,000 new jobs. Cultural Relations range over a wide spectrum, examples of this may be found on a daily basis. Thousands travel across the two continents for various reasons including cultural exchange programs, tourism purposes, and hopes for a different future for example. Organizations such as the Goethe Institute base their entire ethos on the promotion of language and cultural exchange. Similarly, artists, scientists, members of the academic field and the youth embark on journeys to discover, learn, share their values, and hence create bridges between two very differing cultures.

In the relations of the two countries, culture plays an important role. For instance, the German Embassy in Washington D.C. dedicates a lot of efforts to improve, next to political and economical interest, its cultural dialog. The program has many aspects, such as film, visual arts & design, music & performing arts, architecture, literature and sports, while the American embassy is promoting various touristic and exchange programs. In the United States, every year on the 6th of October, the German-American Day is celebrated, when people remember the day when the first Germans arrived to the United States in 1683. During World War 1, this tradition was forgotten due to the „anti-german“ politics, but during the Reagen era in 1983, it was reestablished and it is still popular.. The organization called German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA, established in March 2010 its first museum to protect and promote the common history of USA and Germany.

Conclusion

For over 400 years, Germany and the United States have been maintaining a transatlantic relationship. John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and, at the time, presidential candidate - Barack Obama, have delivered speeches in Berlin to the German public. Even though the content of the speeches have been changed,, the theme was held consistent and it became durable between each speech maker, creating a strong relationship between US and Germany. Whether there was a division in Germany or not, the U.S.was always drawn to show its faith in the positive Germany/U.S. relationship, as well as the vitality of Germans. One of the greatest contributors to the everlasting connection between the United States and Germany ignited with German immigration to the United States. During the 17th century and due to the large number of German immigrants that moved to US, there have been German communities established, such as Germantown which is located close to Philadelphia. By the end of the 19th century, there has been 40% of the population of German heritage living in the metropolitan cities such as Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Cleveland. Germany has been occupied by France, U.S., Great Britain, as well as Soviet Union, after World War II. When the GDR (German Democratic Republic) was controlled by the Soviet Union the U.S., with the help of western allies, had supported the Federal Republic of Germany. The Western part of Germany, supported by the U.S., had a Marshall Plan that aimed to improve German infrastructure and the economy in the country, as well as promote anti-soviet incentives. The Soviet Union tried to isolate West Berlin from any possible Western access causing serious threats of starvation in West Berlin. This year of 1948 was a difficult period for Berlin. The actions which U.S. undertook in order to help West Berlin was providing the city with the essential supplies by air. It came to be known as the Berlin Air Lift of 1949. This is how Berlin became a symbol of the U.S. which has been resolved in order to stand up to Soviet threat, without jumping into a direct conflict. Berlin constituted a miniature setting of the actual Cold War situation during times of German division. The meeting point of the West vs. Eastside of the opposing parties were in Berlin. West Germany became Europe’s largest economy during the Cold War, which allowed the transatlantic partnership between Germany and U.S..

Due to the common values, norms and beliefs that the two countries shared, it has created the possibility of trade relations as well as cooperation between each other. When the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989, it set a new era in German-American relations. This action which happened to the Berlin Wall when German people broke it down, this was the time when the doors to democracy were opened. Markets were liberalized and access to technology and information became available for more people around the world.Nowadays, the German-American relationship remains as very essential and important. According to the calculations, German economy is one of the biggest in Europe and around 30% of German exports are exported to the US. Figures illustrate that 200,000 German jobs are dependent on the American economy. Former US ambassador William R. Timken once stated, “Investment, Trade and Commerce are the glue that binds us together.” Even though there is a huge significance of the economic partnership, the transatlantic relationship has been problematic for the past few years. Many attribute this to US foreign policies under George W. Bush. The US pursued a very “Cold War”, unilateral approach to foreign policy with the slogan, “If you aren’t with us, you’re against us”. This quotation created a feeling of anti-Americanism in Germany as well as around the world and is in an on-going need for improvement of its reputation.

Even though the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 created new hope for East and West, the close and intertwined societies have also given rise to threats which seem impossible to contain by borders and oceans. Currently, due to the present global situation in terms of economical instability, climate change, terrorist threat as well as increase in poverty sends a demand in a stronger and more cooperated partnership between German-American relationship. According to the global challenges which the transatlantic relationship between the two countries have met sent out a reason for Barack Obama who was a presidential candidate at that time to visit Berlin in order to improve the US reputation in Germany as well as implement stronger partnership and cooperation between each other.

References

Institute for Cultural Diplomacy: What is Cultural Diplomacy? http://www.culturaldiplomacy.org/index.php?en_culturaldiplomacy

European Commission (2014): Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ttip/

BBC (2013): Germany ends spy pact with US and UK after Snowden http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23553837

Federal Foreign Office (2014): United States of America http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Aussenpolitik/Laender/Laenderinfos/01-Nodes/UsaVereinigteStaaten_node.html

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian: A guide to the United States’ history of recognition, diplomatic and consular relations by country, since 1776: Germany: http://history.state.gov/countries/germany

German Mission in the United States: http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/08__Culture__Sports__Events/00/____Culture.html

German-American Heritage Foundation of the USA: About the Museum http://www.gahmusa.org/about.php- Detlef Junker, editor: The United States and Germany in the Era of the Cold War, 1945-1968: A Handbook“, Vol. 1: 1945-1968- Uta G. Poiger : Searching for Proper New Music: Jazz in Cold War Germany