“Is this something to be lamented? In some sense, yes, because it means we’re headed back toward militarized rivalry in Europe — but it’s not to be lamented if you look at it as Germany assuming responsibilities it needs to assume,” says Charles A. Kupchan, a Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University.

Kupchan says the sources of German aggression that once made it so dangerous are gone. “Even Germany’s neighbors understand that Europe is a safer place with a strong Germany,” he says.

What’s more, he says, Germany’s engagement is necessary as we enter what could become Cold War 2.0 — this time with an Eastern bloc that may consist not just of Russia but China as well.

Kupchan may be right. Great power rivalry and renewed bloc-based geopolitics may be the future, and Germany and Japan will get pulled back in.

But I, for one, am sorry that the long, hard-fought experiment in military restraint appears to be in retreat.