I’d like to say that I realized today would be the Federal Republic’s 60th anniversary when we scheduled this week’s feature issue on Germany six weeks ago. But truth is, I didn’t. I’m fairly certain Hampton did, though. Either way, it’s a good excuse to plug the issue again, because it’s a great collection of articles on a “quiet” subject that’s worthy of more attention.
Another good excuse to plug the issue is this Al Jazeera piece about Dmitry Medvedev calling out the EU on its Eastern Partnership at the EU-Russia summit meeting yesterday. The Eastern Partnership, as Max Bergmann discussed in his feature article on Germany’s Russia policy, is the EU’s “soft power” approach to absorbing Russia’s near abroad into the European sphere of influence. Medvedev called it a “partnership against Russia.” Despite the happy face everyone’s trying to put on it, that summit seems like it’s been a pretty testy affair.