35 Years of Unity: The Return of Traditional Power Politics

The 35th anniversary of German reunification occurs at a crucial historical moment, following two major geopolitical shifts that have fundamentally altered the international landscape. The first was Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and the second was Donald Trump's political comeback on January 20, 2025, which signals a potential American withdrawal from European affairs and the dissolution of the post-World War II Western alliance.

Social psychologist Harald Welzer argues that we are witnessing the emergence of a new form of governance characterized by the absence of coherent values and the reduction of politics to mere transactional business dealings. However, this analysis misses the fundamental point: Trump's approach doesn't represent something entirely new, but rather a return to traditional power politics that dominated international relations for centuries.

What we are actually experiencing is the end of an exceptional 80-year period - the Yalta world order established after World War II. During this era, the United States guaranteed the security of democratic Western Europe while supporting multilateral institutions and a rules-based international system that promoted cooperation and stability through established diplomatic frameworks.