THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 2003 -- One major task the United States faces in the wake of the Iraq War is repairing relations with Europe, particularly Germany and France. I learned first hand about the diplomatic troubles the Bush Administration would have in convincing Europe of the need to invade Iraq last June, before the idea was at the forefront of most policy makers, when I paid a visit to Germany’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. One of the diplomats I met with that day was K. Peter Gottwald, the director of the foreign ministry’s North America division and now a fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard. Gottwald moderated a timely panel titled " Looking Ahead: Europe and the USA " at the ornate Boston headquarters of the Goethe-Institut Boston on Beacon Street Tuesday.

The marquee panelist was Kurt Biedenkopf, the former Minister-President of Saxony and a leading member of the Christian Democratic Union. Biedenkopf, the Economist wrote on September 25, 1999 is " charming, telegenic, erudite, independent-minded. " He was all those things Tuesday night. By way of context, Biedenkopf is an admirer of the United States: he spent his first year of college, 1949-1959, at Davidson College in North Carolina and received an advanced degree from Georgetown. He, unlike boomers Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder of the Social Democrats and Joeschka Fischer of the Green Party (whom he frequently debated in the 1970s), is of the immediate post-war generation that possesses a base of affection for the United States. He is a friend of Henry Kissinger’s. During his remarks, he was careful to not launch inflammatory attacks against President George W. Bush.

That’s what made his remarks so interesting and demonstrated how deep the divide between Germany and the United States really is. Towards the end of the two-hour panel, the subject focused on terrorism. " The damaged identity caused [to America] by 9/11 has made it extraordinarily difficult to discuss the reasons of the terrorists, " Biedenkopf said. " My suggestion … is to study that .. and to try to find out what it is that makes people seek to take their own lives. " Biedenkopf lamented " a lack of real research into the real causes of terrorism " and recommended Norman Mailer’s most recent book, Why Are We At War?(Random House, 2003). From Biedenkopf’s remarks, his causes seemed to lay much closer to those generally lumped into the category of " root causes, " such as economic disparities between Islamic countries and the West.

With that innocent comment, Biedenkopf, who lies to the right of the political spectrum in Germany and was once a party rival to Helmut Kohl, Germany’s former chancellor, placed himself in the far left of the American political context. Republicans almost never talk about " root causes " of terrorism, and most mainstream Democrats rarely do either. Presidential candidates such as US Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts, John Edwards of North Carolina, and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, leave such discussion to the far left of their party or those outside of the Democratic Party. Norman Mailer’s writings on terror, meanwhile, have been generally ignored.

Still, the German expressed a warning that the Bush Administration would be wise to heed. While America demonstrated great military might in the recent conflict, the country’s weak economic underpinnings – helped along by Bush -- may threaten its success. " The US is deeply in debt. More than 30 percent of the US debt is financed by other nations, such as China and Japan, " Biedenkopf said. This weakened economic footing may be exacerbated if the Bush Administration extends conflict to other parts of the Middle East. " It would tremendously over-extend itself, " Biedenkopf said. " I can only pray that those in the administration who feel that America is the New Rome will fail. Neither Britain nor Europe will follow them. "

Nothing in Biedenkopf’s comments were unique or unusual to anyone in the room. His co-panelist James Cooney, the executive director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, quipped " when I go from Cambridge, Massachusetts to Berlin, it’s not like our viewpoints are so different. " But there is a large divide between overall American public opinion and German public opinion, as Cooney knows, as he was quick to add: " that’s not true when I go visit my sister in Chicago. "

It’s possible that more attention on diplomacy will help bridge gaps between the US and Europe, particularly Germany. But that diplomacy will have to start with the recognition that there is a whole world of difference between both sides.