ABSTRACT
German–American relations are back in vogue. They have returned as an important relationship in international politics and have once again assumed their rightful place as a significant field of scholarship. The advent of Donald Trump as US president in January 2017 has made all the difference. Trump’s difficult personal relationship with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and his denigration of everything the western world, including the US itself, have stood for since 1949 have given anew significance to German–American relations in practice and theory. Germany and the US entered the new millennium in the glow of success regarding the intensified alliance between the two countries that had resulted from strong US support for German unification. The schism that emerged between Germany and the US over the Iraq war is the subject of Dieter Dettke’s contribution to this special issue. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
