Frederick lebt. Not quite, but Germany has National Interests

Several interesting articles by the Financial Times and the New York Times on the growing confidence of Germany. While the return of the German "monster" is a captivating storyline, the normalization of Germany has been quietly taking place for a number of years. The Germans, however, were just quite not so vocal about it before. It has only been in the last two years that Berlin has issued more assertive public positions tied to German national interests, examples include: lobbying to veto NATO expansion at Bucharest, indignation and almost outright anger at the global financial meltdown, the adamant position on the Greek economic crisis, and growing demands regarding German personnel and language in the EU and ECB.

Two thoughts:
1. To what extent is more assertive German behavior driven by evolving national interests or conceptions thereof? And to what extent is it driven by the fragmentation in their political parties and the relative emergence of non-Volksparteien?

2. If one worries about the divergence in French-German interests, one should note the relatively quiet gulf that exists between Berlin and Washington beneath the public rhetoric. Jot down on a piece of paper where U.S.-German relations converge and diverge and one may find that Berlin and Washington have the most divergent interests and visions in the NATO area. Could Germany come to play the role of Gaulist France?