Fixing American diplomacy will take some time
Richard Grenell had scarcely arrived in Berlin in May 2018 when he began breaking china, a boorishness that would characterize his grim season as United States Ambassador to Germany.
On his first day, he ordered German companies doing business in Iran to “wind down operations immediately.” That Germany and other powers supported the Iran nuclear deal did not matter; the U.S. was withdrawing from the agreement, and Germany should, too. Germany ignored him.
Until his much-applauded departure two years later, Grenell criticized Germany's budget plans, the country's levels of defence spending and its buying natural gas from Russia.
Most egregiously, he flirted with the hard right in Germany. “I absolutely want to empower other conservatives in Europe,” he declared, revealing his fondness for Sebastian Kurz, the young chancellor of Austria.
Like other ambassadors appointed by Trump, Grenell was unfit to serve in the capital of one of America's closest allies. It's why the U.S. Senate held up his nomination for months, and confirmed him narrowly.
In Germany, he lived in the world of bombast and self-aggrandizement, often on social media, as he had before arriving in Berlin. Susan Rice, Barack Obama's national security adviser, called him “one of the most nasty, dishonest people I've ever encountered.” Like his boss, he always had to have the loudest voice.
Grenell was one of Trump's ambassadors vying for the title of Ugly American. The competition was intense — see the hapless Woody Johnson, U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. — but Grenell won handily. Actually, he was just one of a gallery of blackguards, sycophants and hacks in the White House, cabinet and agencies, several forced out for impropriety or illegality.
All soiled public service. Trump never cared much, and certainly not with Germany. He felt free to insult Chancellor Angela Merkel's appearance. She was there before and after Trump — the heroine of Europe — but her longevity never muted his distaste for her. (Nor Stephen Harper, who attacked Merkel's admission of Syrian refugees and warned that “she will never live that down.” She did, and unlike Harper, she leaves office with honour and applause.)
But the Germans are proud, serious people. They care about their stature in the world.
They send parliamentary delegations abroad regularly and field a large corps of foreign correspondents. They establish well-funded research institutes to examine and debate international affairs. And Germans travel far and wide. When Germany dispatches diplomats to foreign capitals, it sends its best. The quality of its ambassadors in Ottawa is unfailingly extraordinary. So it is with the much-respected Ambassador Sabine Sparwasser, an eloquent, elegant representative of her country.
The U.S., for its part, is once again recognizing the importance of Berlin. Historically, many American ambassadors were scholars or professors. One was William E. Dodd, an obscure historian of the South whom FDR appointed in 1933. His story is told in Erik Larsen's sensational book, In the Garden of Beasts.
The tradition was to send a person of substance to a country of substance, where expertise and refinement are appreciated. This has been largely the way under presidents both Republican and Democratic.
Which brings us to the announcement this week that Joe Biden is nominating Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, as U.S. Ambassador to Berlin. Gutmann is the daughter of a German Jewish refugee.
She is a storied academic, writer and editor of 17 books, examining human rights and constitutional democracy. A former senior diplomat at the State Department told me that “she is a superstar.”
(Biden has not announced his nominee for ambassador to Canada. While new presidents often take months to announce diplomatic nominations, Canada is not a priority.)
Rome wasn't built in a day. Washington — desecrated and discredited under King Donald — won't be restored in a year. But appointments like this and others at home and abroad by the administration reflect a new commitment to restore excellence to a tarnished American diplomacy — and to public life.