German-Foreign-Policy.com reports that former professor at the Foreign Service Institute of the U.S. government Tony Corn has warned of sinister parallels between the efforts of German elites today and those of an earlier German era—with the prospect of similar results.

Tony Corn had a significant role in training personnel for the U.S. Foreign Ministry. Yet if he sounded the warnings to the U.S. Foreign Service that he is now sounding in public, it seems from the actions of the current U.S. administration they fell on deaf ears. Especially considering the mooted drawdown of U.S. troops from Europe foreshadowed in the president’s most recently announced defense cutbacks.

Corn notes how the current configuration of the German-dominated European Union bears uncanny resemblance to the state of German politics immediately prior to World War i. He describes how German elites have succeeded in creating their “unofficial economic imperium in Middle Europe,” and that with this they have succeeded in gaining powerful dominance in Europe. But he warns against the German effort to force its political will to prevail over all in the present euro crisis.

In an uncanny comparison between today’s Europe in crisis and the German dominance of Europe previous to World War i, Professor Corn observes that Berlin is striving “to make out of the 27 members of the European Union a modern counterpart to the 27 federal states of the German Kaiserreichs.” This he maintains will meet with a corresponding resistance, noting that in this respect the “political leadership in Germany” demonstrates today “the same lack of statesmanship as on the eve of World War i.”

Déjà vu indeed!