Riding high on the savvy of Angela Merkel.

last updated 8 January 2015

Germany

Angela Merkel has single-handedly resurrected German relations with America, said Norbert Wallet in the Stuttgarter Nachrichten. When Gerhard Schröder was chancellor of Germany, the U.S. kept its distance, both because Schröder was shrill in his denunciation of the Iraq war and because he seemed “unreliable in his positions.” Chancellor Merkel, by contrast, is a plain speaker. On her visit to Washington last week to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions, her refreshing bluntness won over the U.S. president. “She says just what she thinks,” Bush noted admiringly. Of course, it helped immensely that what she thought was that Iran should not be allowed to get nuclear weapons. Agreeing with Bush on this contentious issue helps cement her status as his valued new partner. Besides, Bush could use all the partners he can find: The leaders of Britain, France, and Italy have all been sidelined by intense domestic pressures. With an international crisis looming over Iran’s attempts to acquire nuclear weapons, Bush needs someone who can talk to all the players involved—Russia, the U.S., China, India, and of course Iran. Merkel is his best hope.

Merkel didn’t get that role simply by default, said Richard Meng in the Frankfurter Rundschau. In her half-year on the job, she has proved to be a gifted diplomat. Already, she’s got Bush treating her like a close friend, “prefacing his every remark about their recent meeting with ‘Angela and I.’” She told George all about what Vladimir Putin had to say on Iran, and of course she’d already promised Vlad that she’d report back on what George said. She phoned Britain’s Tony Blair before going to Washington and France’s Jacques Chirac upon her return. The role she seeks—and has evidently found73151;is that of political “middleweight,” mediating between the heavyweights, and becoming indispensable in the process.

She’s clearly in her element, said Christoph Schwennicke in Munich’s Süddeutsche Zeitung. Merkel quickly found that she “loves playing the power games of world politics.” Part of her success is surely due to the inherent interest in her as the newcomer on the world scene, and the only woman among the top European leaders—two attributes that could have worked against another politician in her place. Merkel, though, has a personal style in dealing with other leaders that is “clear, sturdy, and direct.” She knows that diplomacy depends “not only on national interests, but also on the psychology of the characters who represent their countries.” By allying herself so firmly with President Bush on the Iran issue, she opened the way for Bush to continue pursuing diplomacy with Iran.