Folge 6: Corona and American Diplomacy

In the decades since World War II, many Germans experienced the
U.S. as a benign hegemon that provided global public goods out of
enlightened self-interest, as a nation that has brought peace and
prosperity to the North Atlantic region. The United States
accomplished this not least by helping to create multinational
institutions like the World Trade Organization, the United Nations,
or NATO. Yet, in the last years we have witnessed a different
development, and the world increasingly views the U.S. as a country
that drifts away from multilateral institutions or even actively
undermines them. In the global pandemic, the World Health
Organization is a case in point. It seems as if U.S. multilateral
diplomacy that pursued long-term goals is a matter of the past and
has been replaced by transactional diplomacy aiming at
short-term results. In this edition of the HCA podcast,
Anja Schüler talks about these issues with Robert Zoellick, chief
U.S. envoy to the Two Plus Four Talks on German reunification
and president of the World Bank from 2007 to 2012.