It's a take on nuclear proliferation and climate change from what reads like a 'green advocate'. This doesn't invalidate a well presented rationale, but the opinions presented will no doubt be challenged.

This opinion piece has minimal journalistic value. The author is a partisan who ignores world realities. Will the next President really be in a worse situation than Harry Truman when he took office? The author either is ignorant of basic world history or is so prejudiced that he cannot discuss reality. The rest of the piece is equally nonsensical. The U.S. did not "defy" the Security Council when it and two dozen allies liberated Iraq; we waited more than half a year after the Council declared Iraq out of compliance. Typical of Der Spiegel, one of the least accurate and most biased anti-American magazines in the world.