The U.S. is losing the close friends it needs most

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/the-us-is-losing-the-close-friends-it-needs-most/article19583992/

The U.S. is losing the close friends it needs most
Derek Burney and Fen Osler Hampson
Contributed to The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Jul. 14 2014, 7:05 AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Jul. 14 2014, 8:45 AM EDT

Foreign policy is like gardening, former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, more than once remarked. And it begins, he pointed out, by making sure that relations with America’s neighbors, key allies, and friends remain regularly and well-tended. It is an axiom of foreign policy that the Obama administration is ignoring to its own detriment.

There has been abundant criticism about the way the United States has handled its relations with Russia, China, and an unfolding succession of crises in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and now Israel-Palestine – much of its justified. But there is also a major, growing problem in America’s relations with its key allies, where it is not only losing friends but also its capacity for influence.

U.S. relations with Germany – Europe’s economic and political juggernaut – have sunk to an all-time low. Edward Snowden’s revelations that U.S. intelligence operatives were conducting widespread operations in Germany, including tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone, enraged Germans. Memories of East Germany’s Ministry of State Security (Stasi) major intrusion into the private lives of ordinary citizens during the Cold War are still raw, and U.S. insensitivity to Germans’ strongly held belief in the last right to privacy has cost relations dearly.

~snip~

The health of U.S. relations with key allies is not much better across the Pacific. The Japanese government's recent decision that it would reinterpret its constitution and lift the ban on collective self defense – the biggest shift in Japanese defense policy in 70 years – has sent shockwaves throughout the region. Japanese fears about China’s growing military assertiveness are clearly behind the move, but so too are Japanese doubts about the strength its alliance with the U.S. at a time when the U.S. defense budget is shrinking and Washington is sending mixed and confusing signals to the region.

[rock]

1. Perhaps even deservedly