Germany and Canada are planning submarine cooperation - but survey shows different world views

When Germany and Canada recently announced a multi-billion dollar collaboration to build a submarine fleet, it was hailed by many as an encouraging sign to expand the alliance between these two influential countries.

Canada has been assigned an intellectual leadership role since Prime Minister Mark Carney called for an independent path for the central powers in Davos at the beginning of the year. Germany, in turn, could make a particularly significant contribution to this course with its economic power and central role in Europe.

As symbolic as the closer arms cooperation is, it should not obscure the fact that Germans and Canadians view the world situation and the prerequisites for a successful middle power policy very differently.

This is what the results of a survey for the Munich Security Conference in July suggest. Societies differ significantly in their expectations of their own country, in their trust in its ability to act internationally - and in their willingness to engage in new forms of cooperation.

This begins with assessing how effective the actions of middle powers in the world can be. In Canada, 37 percent of respondents believe states beyond the United States and China can exert a strong, independent influence on international politics. In Germany it is only 23 percent. A majority of 52 percent sees the world dominated by Washington and Beijing.