Germany: Unity and Rearmament

As this is being written, Bonn’s parliament is voting for German rearmament. This caps the policy of “restoration” pursued during recent years by the U.S. in Western Europe; at the same time it introduces additional elements of rigidity not merely into German society but into the complex of European relationships as well. The new army, by its very existence, will sharpen the parochial nationalisms of Western Europe, and thus accentuate its inner rivalries. It will exert strong pressures on domestic policies for it constitutes not so much a potential danger as a factor of immense power, hence a competitive challenge impossible to evade. This must clearly limit whatever elements of fluidity, whatever “elbow roomR...