Institute of European Studies

This paper is based on the hypothesis that the new geopolitical environment for the Atlantic Alliance is mainly influenced by the following five elements: The renaissance of Germany as the central player on the European theater after the collapse of the Soviet Union; the shift of American geopolitical focus from Europe to the Middle East and central Asia; the increasing geopolitical influence of petroleum energy resources; the increasing power of china; and the differing perceptions of political reality within the Atlantic Alliance. The new situation was clearly demonstrated after 9/11 when the “neocons” were able to implement their ideas about how to handle Iraq and the Germans rejected their arguments and refused to participate. With Obama as president it seems to be a certain rapprochement with the “old Europeans” in substance as well as methods in foreign policy. But the world is moving away from the bipolar world that the military alliance could feel comfortable with and towards a more dynamic theatre where the German Russian “strategic partnership” is a central feature of what can be labeled “The New Atlantic Reality”