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 It seems as if U.S. multilateral diplomacy that pursued long-term goals is a matter of the past and has been replaced by transactional diplomacy aiming at short-term results.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.