The largest European military donor is Germany, with €17.7 billion since February 2022, of which €9.4 billion has been allocated. The negative standing of the present German government coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and Liberals doesn’t come as a surprise. The German chancellor’s historic 2022 Zeitenwende speech and the bitter reality that it has not had much impact … [Read more...] about Germany’s Security Failure
World
Did Germany Inadvertently Encourage Putin’s War?
Three days after Putin’s war against Ukraine started, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in a special session of the Bundestag, proclaimed a Zeitenwende, in the sense of a historic shift. The Russian invasion of Ukraine shattered many fundamental convictions of German politics, including “change through trade” (Wandel durch Handel), which had prevailed for decades. In a … [Read more...] about Did Germany Inadvertently Encourage Putin’s War?
Europe’s Post-Trump Sigh of Relief
When the major news networks and the Associated Press declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential elections on November 7, there was a big sigh of relief all over Europe, especially in Germany. But when U.S. President Donald Trump claimed victory in the days following the election and declared that he would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the counting of postal … [Read more...] about Europe’s Post-Trump Sigh of Relief
Germany on the Firing Line
Ever since U.S. President Donald Trump started a global trade war, attacking high German current account surpluses and threatening penalty tariffs on German cars, Germany’s economic model as the basis for the extraordinarily strong position of German quality brands on world markets moves further into the firing line. Faced with the threat of a 35 percent tariff on imported cars … [Read more...] about Germany on the Firing Line
Germany’s China Dilemma
At a recent weekend, the leaders of the present German coalition government, still headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, gathered in Berlin to discuss why they have lost millions of voters in recent elections. Merkel’s party union is still struggling with the refugee open border disaster, while the Social Democrats proposed a fundamental overhaul of Germany’s social state, … [Read more...] about Germany’s China Dilemma