In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a series of unprecedented changes in German foreign policy. These changes include the export of German weapons to Ukraine, a commitment to spend more than two percent of its GDP annually on its military, and a one-time investment of 100 billion euros to modernize Germany’s armed forces. While this seismic shift in German foreign policy has been applauded by most commentators, a critical discussion about the repercussions of this change for European, transatlantic, and global security has largely been missing. This virtual discussion, organized by Transatlantika in collaboration with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, seeks to fill this gap.
Some of the questions that discussed are:
How did this change come about, especially given that large parts of German society have been opposed to the use of military force for historical reasons until very recently?
How will it affect the current conflict in Ukraine?
In the long run, will it constitute a safeguard against potential Russian aggression or increase the likelihood of security conflicts?
Is this change bringing the “German Question” back on the table – the security problem of an economically and militarily dominant Germany in the center of Europe?
And how will it affect Germany’s relationship with France, the United States, and other NATO partners?
The panelists for the event include Richard Herrmann and Peter Mansoor of the Mershon Center, and Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, executive director of the Berlin office at the German Marshall Fund and one of the key intellectuals in Germany on questions of transatlantic cooperation. During the second half of the event, the panelists will answer questions from the audience. The discussion was moderated by Tim Luecke, co-founder and CEO of Transatlantika.
