Transatlanticism has been the cornerstone of the US external relations.Political decisions in Washington often have direct effects on Germany. The transatlantic relationship is the central context for German and European foreign policy. Economically and geopolitically, the U.S.-German alliance has become the linchpin of the trans-Atlantic relationship in the 21stcentury. Despite their disagreements at the time over the Iraq War,Nato’s eastward expansion and U.S. National Security Agency spying, Americans and Germans view each other as reliable allies.

But Germans are slightly more circumspect than Americans about the alliance.

Americans are divided over Obama’s handling of ties with Germany: 40% approve of the job he is doing, 36% disapprove. But nearly a quarter (23%) of Americans have no opinion about his stewardship of the relationship, a sign that Germany is not on the radar of many Americans. As might be expected, Democrats (67%) say Obama is doing a good job, while only 16% of Republicans agree, suggesting much of the American public’s lack of faith in Obama’s dealings with Germany may reflect a broader partisan criticism of his overall.

Nevertheless, a majority of Germans (57%) believe it is more important for Germany to have strong ties with the United States than with Russia. Just 15% prefer strong ties with Russia, and another 21% volunteer that it is best to have an equally close relationship with both. However, East and West Germans differ on ties with the U.S. While 61% of Germans living in the West prefer a strong affiliation with America, just 44% of people living in the East agree. And while 23% of people in the East voice support for strong ties with Russia, only 12% of those in the West agree.

The geometry of military, economic and political cooperation between Washington and Brussels largely influence the scope of  tactically and strategically growing relations between Berlin and Washington.

Together, the United States and Germany stand up for democracy in Europe and beyond – and will continue to do so. As one of the world’s most unwavering supporters of human rights and democracy, Germany is at the center of European politics. Germany is not only an economic powerhouse within the European Union; it is also one of America’s largest investment, trade and financial partners. The transatlantic economy accounts for more than half of world trade, and the numbers are even higher when it comes to investment. In terms of innovation, the United States and Germany lead the world. Our two countries have the best research institutions and universities and the most inventive companies.

The Next Generation strategy project regarding the US-German relations focuses on the objective that the strategic landscape is  changing.Organizations like the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) are starting down this path with a youth exchange program that encourages the participation of Hispanic Americans and Germans of Turkish descent.

Another foundation of the US-German relationship is exchange programs. For more than half a century, exchange programs between the United States and Germany have helped to strengthen the bilateral relationship. By experiencing each other’s countries and cultures in person, exchange program participants gain new understanding and become ambassadors for the host country and for the transatlantic cause.

Both US and Germany are working to ensure global economic growth and to build the institutional capacities in developing countries that will have the largest effect in attaining the peace and prosperity that all people desire.

In the 21st century, trade and investment drive jobs and innovation. Investment is the foundation of dynamic German-American economic ties. The United States has long been the largest foreign investor in Germany. Germany today is the third largest source of new direct investment and owns the fifth largest stock of foreign direct investment in the United States.

Foreign direct investment between our two markets continues to grow rapidly. Within the last two decades, U.S. direct investment in Germany more than quadrupled and German investment in the U.S. grew sevenfold. At the end of 2009, the aggregate stock of U.S. direct investment in Germany climbed to $117 billion in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, IT, biotech, auto parts and services, and renewable energy. German businesses have invested more than $218 billion in the U.S. market. During the recent recession, foreign direct investment flows into the U.S. from most countries fell; but not German investment – it grew by more than 60% from 2007 to 2009.

The positive trend continued in 2010 and highlights how deeply intertwined our markets are – and also that the United States is the most important destination for German investment. Today, the United States, Germany and the other leading economies work through the G20 to develop a better set of incentives to promote sustainability and reduce the risk of the re-emergence of large trade and current account imbalances.  We are establishing stronger norms for exchange rate policies to help accommodate changes in the global economy.

The U.S. and Germany are close partners in promoting innovative approaches to climate change and enhancing energy security. As two of the most open places in the world to do business, the pioneer efforts of the U.S. and Germany in renewable energy technology have a multiplier effect.

The United States joined the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) – an international organization dedicated to facilitating the rapid development and deployment of renewable energy worldwide – on March 4, 2011. The U.S. looks forward to working closely with the IRENA Innovation Center that has been openen in Bonn in 2011 to jumpstart the development of clean technologies. Engaging with green technology companies in the U.S. and Germany is a particularly effective way to gain momentum for the transition to a low carbon economy.The Transatlantic Climate Bridge (TCB) is a German government initiative to foster cooperation and build industry and government partnerships on climate and energy issues at the local, state and federal levels.

But Germany’s geographic proximity and economic ties to Russia give Berlin and Washington different stakes in the current and in any future confrontation with Moscow.

Significantly, the American policymakers seem to have recognized the fact:  that the epicenter of power in Europe has shifted from London to Berlin.  Key to achieving an effective sanctions framework, and to securing Russia’s European neighbors, is a stronger role for Germany in shaping European policy. Indeed, a stronger U.S.-Germany partnership is critical not only to providing an effective counterbalance to Russia’s increasingly belligerent foreign policy but also to defeating malignant terror cells operating in Europe and beyond.

Americans and Germans disagree, however, about whether the current U.S. and EU posture toward Russia over Ukraine is too tough, not tough enough or about right. Americans want to ratchet up the pressure, while most Germans do not support a tougher stance. Germany and the United States of America are bound together by historical ties of friendship. The two countries share common experiences, values and interests, though controversial issues repeatedly arise in bilateral relations. An important pillar of bilateral relations is the transatlantic security community NATO.

The end of the Cold War started a new hope for lasting peace in Europe. But the world has been stubborn and uncooperative, and international security challenges persist in nearly every region of the world. European security, largely underwritten by the United States since the inception of NATO, is also changing. Burden sharing within NATO continues to be a contentious issue, and there is worry that the Alliance could fracture as a result of differing threat perceptions regarding Russia.

Typically, both German and American policy makers share different views regarding Nato’s eastward expansion.For Germans, Nato’s eastward expansion has not been a US ‘initiative par excellence’ and for them,the expansion would have or might have caused some reversal affects on Germany-sponsored doctrine of ‘new ostpolitik’ in Eastern Europe.For Americans, the expansion was strategically significant to ‘contain’ Russia.

The German strategists pragmatically view to liberate the security governance of the European Union from Nato’s dependency- trajectory.Retrospectively,the German policy makers has had shown their tactical and ideological reservations over Junior Bush’s plan of installing Nato’s defense missile system in Eastern Europe that was subsequently jettisoned by president Obama in 2009.The policy experts from both sides, have mutually and profoundly worked on the subject of the future of Nato’s ‘tactical nuclear weapons’ in Europe vis-a-vis Russia.

Cooperation between Germany and the U.S. on security policy remains intensive and comprehensive but priorities in this area have repeatedly been subject to change. Today, one of the focuses is combating international terrorism.

Together with other allies, Germany is assisting in crisis and conflict management worldwide, for instance in Ukraine, Afghanistan, the Balkans and the Middle East, through diplomatic and in some cases military engagement as well as by providing support in building up police forces and development assistance.

Military relations between Germany and the U.S. are built on a broad foundation, the historical roots of which go back well into the 18th century. Today, German and American troops stand shoulder to shoulder in missions across the globe, making a joint contribution to peace and stability in the world. Military relations between Germany and the U.S. are built on a broad foundation, the historical roots of which go back well into the 18th century President Obama’s decision to award Chancellor Angela Merkel the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor that any civilian can receive in the United States, is a testament to the Chancellor’s extraordinary life story.

The United States and Germany have profoundly different views over where the balance between liberty and security is to be struck, but it matters greatly whether Germany makes this only a question within the bilateral relationship with Washington. Much larger questions are at stake.

Make no mistake, the aspirations of the American national-security establishment do pose a profound threat to human rights throughout the world. The National Security Agency( NSA), notes the New York Times, is “an electronic omnivore of staggering capabilities, eavesdropping and hacking its way around the world to strip governments and other targets of their secrets, all the while enforcing the utmost secrecy about its own operations. It spies routinely on friends as well as foes.”

In Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, we learn that “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence. . . .” The concern vouchsafed in the Fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution—“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures”—shows that concern with privacy and with the protected autonomy of the individual were hardly new principles in 1948, but rather an old American (and English) principle making a plea to be considered as central to international law.

But  it has been unfortunate that the US’s surveillance mission under the National Security Agency( NSA), has compromised the norms set in the US constitution and the international law.Therefore the German reservations over the US’s spying issue carry much moral, legal and ethical leverage.

Opposition to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has been particularly high in Germany, in part due to rising anti-American sentiment linked to revelations of U.S. spying and fears of digital domination by firms like Google.It is presumed that if the ongoing TTIP’s negotiations between Brussels and Washington are positively concluded,it may rightly enrich and widen the economic scope between Berlin and Washington.

“We are in Europe what Americans are in the world: the unloved leading power,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said to a group of advisers.

Merkel’s quip neatly sums up a key dynamic shaping the current US-German relationship. For the United States, being the somewhat unloved leading power is nothing new; some even consider it the price of leadership. For Germany, however, the notion of economic leadership was not meant to be synonymous with shaping world events, which underlines the perceived German reluctance to assume the role of ‘leader’ absent a qualifying descriptor before such a weighty title.

The twentieth century forged iron ties between the US and Germany; the twenty-first century needs to transform them. This starts with developing a more realistic and less nostalgic view of each other by becoming more informed and accepting of the differences that divide the two strategic-cum-tactical partners partners,the US and Germany , instead of assuming that those countries or their people will be united by default.