The President and the Chancellor German-American relations, the 2002-2003 Iraq crisis, and the role of personality is statecraft

• Main Author: Rothehueser, Patrick O.
• Other Authors: Abenheim, Donald
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/4058

This thesis investigates the influence of personal bias in the political leaders in the U.S.-German dispute in 2002-2003 over the Iraq campaign and the nature of the Atlantic Alliance in the 21st century in the face of a new international security environment. The focus is on the life experiences and the crucial influence of the two national-level decision-makers, President George W. Bush and Chancellor Gerhard SchroÌ der. The thesis examines the course of events and the shifts in foreign policy after the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, in the two countries, in order to analyze the origins of the dispute. The study finds that the personalities and personal biases of the two protagonists at times outweighed and at times reflected political, strategic, and cultural factors during the escalation of the dispute between the traditionally close transatlantic allies. Examples of relationships between German and U.S. national leaders from the 1970s to the 1990s show that personality had always been a decisive factor in the bi-lateral relationship, but that statecraft and diplomacy prevented the escalation of policy disagreements and avoided the immoderate personalization of politics.