ABSTRACT
Many West Germans are quite conscious of their influence and are confident about many aspects of the Federal Republic's new role. The sense of a return to pan-European existence stirs the imagination of many Europeans, especially Germans. The Germans see the slow knitting together of a torn continental fabric that represented the center of their history and culture. In a broader sense, the end of the twentieth century is witnessing the relative decline of the superpowers, as new stars as Japan, West Germany, and others begin more and more to assert themselves. The increase in West German economic and political influence has come about at a propitious time, when those very instruments of national power carry far more weight than they did in the immediate post-war years. With greater German power comes a greater German-American agenda. The United States is an essential partner for West Germany in all aspects of new agenda, whether in Germany, Europe, or the world.
