sh-strapped at the time, with the construction of the bomb consuming enormous sums of money. This led Ben-Gurion to negotiate in great secrecy with Adenauer over a loan worth billions. According to the German negotiation records, which the federal government has now released in response to a request by

ded missiles. There was "no clear legal or budgetary basis" for the shipments," a German official admitted in an internal document at the time. But Adenauer backed his defense minister, and in 1967 it became clear how correct he was in making this assessment, when Israel preempted an attack by its neigh

Libya; providing armed muscle to the U.N. forces in Ivory Coast; and giving its pacifist-trending ally Germany a lesson in 21st-century Atlanticism. Adenauer and de Gaulle must be turning in their graves. Here was Germany standing wobbly with Brazil, Russia, India and China — and against its closest allies

rifice of principle and honor we could buy a quiet life. But life isn't that easy. Putin, as I have said before, is no Hitler. But neither is he an Adenauer or Brandt, ready to stand in partnership to build a liberal world. As Lilia Shevstova notes on this site, Putin has chosen the path of repression a

e euro itself initially was about internal geopolitics: German reunification in 1989 finally completed German's grand strategy in effect since the Adenauer government. It could have created a thoroughly dominant Germany that once again might become overbearing and politically destabilizing. The euro wa