Realpolitik Returns: Western Leaders Turn Cold On Arab Spring

BERLIN – At the height of the giddiness over the fall of the Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt, leading German politicians were putting themselves through the wringer. Too long had the West dealt with Arab despots based on the false assumption that only they could guarantee “stability” in the explosive Middle East. From now on, support of human rights and democracy had to form the basis of a values-oriented foreign policy.

Only a few months later, these views, at least as far as government parties are concerned, appear to have been erased from memory. It’s as if this spring’s revolutions, which didn’t shake up just the Arab world, had never taken place. Now, it’s all about the controversial planned sales of tanks by Germany to Saudi Arabia. That golden oldie, “realpolitik,” is back. Of course, “human rights considerations must play a role, but international security interests take priority,” says German Minister of Defense Thomas de Maizière, adding that Saudi Arabia is “one of the most important anchors of stability in the region.”

The opposition would be a good deal more credible in its indignation about the tank deal if it had also complained when the German government refused participation in the military intervention to protect Libyan revolutionaries against mass murders perpetrated by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces. Or if it kicked in full-on about the West’s ongoing inaction in the face of Syrian death and torture squads acting against its own people.

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