In the past six decades, the four pillars of Germany’s post-World War II security model were built and expanded: NATO, the European Union, trans-Atlanticism and free trade. This gave Germans their longest period of peace, making them fantastically rich as the world’s fourth biggest economy.
Can Germany’s view of itself as a ‘big Switzerland’ be sustained? Leon Mangasarian argues not. The Biden presidency is providing Germans with a false sense of security, one which means that Germany will fail to build the appropriate policies and NATO alliances Germany desperately needs in order to build a grand strategy of its place in Europe. If that debate is not led by the chancellery then it needs to come from the Bundestag, from the country’s expanding think tank community, the universities and citizen fora.
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Germany and the World of Yesterday
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Germany and the World of Yesterday
About the Author
Leon Mangasarian was an editor and reporter for Bloomberg News (2007-2015), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (1994-2007) and United Press International (1989-1994) in East Berlin, Berlin, Bonn and Brussels. He received a PhD in International Relations from LSE in 1993. He is now a freelance writer living in Potsdam, Germany, and on a farm in southeast Brandenburg state.