Germany looks strong only because other European countries are so weak

What explains the unmatched global influence of American culture?

Since the 15th century Europe has been the bloody battleground in a continent-wide struggle for power. But today war seems a distant threat. What changed?

Germany's radical foreign minister—who evoked Auschwitz to persuade his fellow Greens to back the bombing of Serbia—is an awkward character. But Joschka Fischer deserves his place in...

What makes a city great? It needs hungry outsiders struggling to become insiders. This explains why Berlin will never again be a great city, even when it becomes the capital of the united Germany in...

As Germany's Social Democrats decide who to put up against King Kohl in the autumn, Josef Joffe asks whether it matters who rules. As in Italy, politics is becoming a sideshow

If Europe cannot agree on the small issues of defence and foreign policy, how can it do so on the big ones, such as the use of military force? The answer is that it does not even want to

The good news from Germany is that there is no news. Unemployment soars but the extreme right remains feeble. Josef Joffe says the Weimar syndrome can now be buried

Josef Joffe looks back on the latest twist in the middle east process and wonders whether Israelis and Palestinians can learn the lessons of the past 50 years