Folge 6: Corona and American Diplomacy

In the decades since World War II, many Germans
experienced the U.S. as a benign hegemon that provided global
public goods out of enlightened self-interest, as a nation that has
brought peace and prosperity to the North Atlantic region. The
United States accomplished this not least by helping to create
multinational institutions like the World Trade Organization, the
United Nations, or NATO. Yet, in the last years we have witnessed a
different development, and the world increasingly views the U.S. as
a country that drifts away from multilateral institutions or even
actively undermines them. In the global pandemic, the World Health
Organization is a case in point. It seems as if U.S. multilateral
diplomacy that pursued long-term goals is a matter of the past and
has been replaced by transactional diplomacy aiming at
short-term results.
In this edition of the HCA podcast, Anja Schüler talks about these
issues with Robert Zoellick, chief U.S. envoy to
the Two Plus Four Talks on German
reunification and president of the World Bank from 2007 to
2012.