Germany and the United States After Iraq: From Alliance to Alignment STEPHEN F. SZABO F our months after the formal end of military action in Iraq, Gerhard Schröder and George W. Bush met on September 24, 2003 in Suite 35 h at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, while both were attending the United Na­tions General Assembly meeting. The mini summit was the first since their meeting in Berlin in May 2002 and lasted forty minutes, longer than the half an hour originally planned. Every minute carried symbolic weight. As Der Spiegel commented,»The entire fate of the German­American relationship hung on this half hour«. Television cameras were permitted in to film pictures of handshakes and smiles. The meeting went well and the President referred to the Chancellor by his first name, declar­ing,»We’ve had our differences and they’re over, and we’re going to work together«. The Chancellor responded,»We very much feel that the differ­ences there have been left behind and put aside by now«. 1 The meeting marked the formal end of the crisis which had begun in the summer of 2002 but it did not imply that things were back to where they were in May 2002. Before he met with the American President, the Chancellor said that he did not want to kindle a»love affair« with the Americans(keine»Liebesbeziehung« zu den Amerikanern entfachen), but rather to continue with»entirely normal conversations«. 2 These care­fully chosen words gave expression to how much had changed in little over a year and made clear there was going to be no return to Eden. If the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unifica­tion of Germany, the post Cold War period ended with the war in Iraq. It is now time to assess how much has changed and what remains in terms 1. Dana Milbank and Colum Lynch,»Bush Fails to Gain Pledges on Troops Or Funds for Iraq«, Washington Post, September 25, 2003, p. A 22; see also»Die Gerd und George Show«, Spiegel Online, 25. September 2003. 2. Matthias Streitz,»Sticheleien vor dem Treffen«, Spiegel Online, 24. September 2003. ipg 1/2004 Szabo, Germany and the United States 41