After my speechless commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was left speechless after reading Robert D. Kaplan’s Wall-related Dispatch from The Atlantic.

Kaplan plays down the geographic symbolism of the Berlin Wall (an “artificial border”) and maintains his theme of geographic determinism (which I have called myopic): “twenty years after the end of the Cold War, classical geography continues to shape the terms of global politics”. But this statement is nowhere near as controversial as Kaplan’s closing comments about America “losing” Europe after the fall of the Wall, and a shock-inducing rhetorical question followed by some logic straight from ancient Rome:

What does the European Union truly stand for besides a cradle-to-grave social welfare system? For without something to struggle for, there can be no civil society—only decadence.

Is Kaplan suggesting that the EU’s lack of will to fight for liberty abroad has lead to a deteriorated self identity? Read the article in full. Fulminate below.

Already today media outlets across the world are featuring tomorrow’s 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. I do not having anything to add except for my own memory: the coming down of the wall was the first international political event that I remember experiencing as a boy. I remember thinking, “History is being made today.”

I thought I would leave this an open thread if anyone has any comments or experiences to relate.

The end of the Cold War heralded many things. The fact that so much is still written about it says a lot about how deeply it changed the world and how little we still understand about the present. While much has been said about US foreign policy since then, too little attention is often paid to the effects it’s had on the foreign policies of other countries.

From 1945 through 1991, the United States had one primary goal, to contain and ultimately defeat communism. It was the prism through which we saw and the ruler with which we measured relationships with other countries. It dominated national security policies. It defined our world. Since then, a multitude of lesser-includeds have risen to the top of our foreign and security policy often making them both confusing and contradictory. Yet, for all the discussion, debate and criticism of American foreign policy, the flux in which the same policies of other countries is in, is often overlooked and even more importantly, misunderstood. This series aims to correct that by elucidating the changes and challenges in the foreign and security policies of two major US allies: Germany and Turkey, both of which are key regional powers. The series will will be as follows:

I. Germany Then and Now

II. Turkey: Back in the Neighborhood

If the thousands of books on security and foreign policy flooding stores are any indicator, now more than ever both the American government and Americans themselves need level-headed thinking about where we’re headed. The same is equally true for our allies. Each article will discuss the the changes in each countries policies and their effect on the United States and our relationship with that country. Enjoy!