U.S.-German relationship on the rocks

By Ian Bremmer and and Mark Leonard, Published: October 18

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/us-german-relationship-on-the-rocks/2012/10/18/ed6a9f1c-13c2-11e2-be82-c3411b7680a9_story.html

It should be a marriage made in heaven. Barack Obama and Angela Merkel are quiet, pragmatic politicians less interested in grand gestures than in results. Merkel gives Washington someone to call when Europe is in crisis. Obama gives Europe the longed-for U.S. leader willing to invest in multilateralism and multinational institutions.
So why does a widening divide between Berlin and Washington threaten the entire Western alliance?
A fundamental shift in interests and outlook is leaving the United States and Germany with potentially irreconcilable differences.