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1 month ago | 
cepa.org | Leon Mangasarian |Kateryna Odarchenko |Radu Tudor |Alison Mutler
Donald Trump’s shift towards Russia’s position on Ukraine, if maintained, will force Friedrich Merz’s victorious Christian Democrats to make painful and historic policy shifts on German military leadership in Europe, debt-financed defense spending, the deployment of troops to Ukraine and nuclear deterrence. A day after his qualified victory in German’s general election, Merz faces more of a revolution than a Zeitenwende, the turning point declared by his predecessor three years ago.
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Dec 7, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | Leon Mangasarian
Angela Merkel, who last month published her memoirs on her 16 years as German chancellor, was a great tactician. But she was dead wrong on many of the strategic questions hurled at Germany during her time in charge. Merkel is the architect of a Germany that’s again the sick man of Europe, now in a second year with a shrinking economy and surging parties on the far-right and far-left.
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Dec 7, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Leon Mangasarian
Angela Merkel, who last month published her memoirs on her 16 years as German chancellor, was a great tactician. But she was dead wrong on many of the strategic questions hurled at Germany during her time in charge. Merkel is the architect of a Germany that’s again the sick man of Europe, now in a second year with a shrinking economy and surging parties on the far-right and far-left. Merkel doesn’t do mea culpas and this has annoyed some reviewers of her book.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Antonia Hmaidi |Leon Mangasarian |Alina Polyakova |Ronan Murphy
It looked like a turning point. In August, the German Foreign Office summoned the Chinese ambassador to Germany, accusing Beijing of conducting a cyberattack against the state cartography agency. It was the first time that Germany had summoned China’s ambassador since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Germany has woken up to the China challenge. The current government demonstrates a new understanding and willingness to act against Chinese threats.
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Nov 22, 2024 | 
cepa.org | Leon Mangasarian |Alina Polyakova |Ronan Murphy |Bill Echikson
The scenario in which a returning President Donald Trump exits NATO or, more likely, undermines confidence in Article 5 is all too familiar across the alliance. So, too, are the policies Europe needs to keep itself secure and free: stronger militaries, European nuclear deterrence, more cooperation, and far higher readiness. The problem is not policy but politics: what if what’s needed is impossible? Most of Europe has a defense implementation problem.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Daniel DePetris |Leon Mangasarian |Gavin Mortimer |Frank Lavin
What on earth is Donald Trump thinking? That’s what many realists and restrainers inside and out of Washington are asking themselves after news broke late last night that Marco Rubio, the senior senator from Florida, is set to be tapped as secretary of state in the next administration. The reactions haven’t been uniformly bad, mind you. Other candidates rumored to be under consideration, such as Vivek Ramaswamy, caused many in the US foreign policy elite to wretch in fear.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Lionel Shriver |Leon Mangasarian |Gavin Mortimer |Ben Domenech
It’s always intimidating to write for a readership more clued up than you are. I file this on the very Tuesday the international commentariat have relentlessly claimed is the most consequential election day in American history. Now, in my ignorance, I suspect this superlative reflects the blinkered vanity of the present, and I’ve braved expressing my trust on the record that the country will ultimately survive either dismaying outcome.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
thespectator.com | Leon Mangasarian |Gavin Mortimer |Lionel Shriver |Ian Thomson
The demise of chancellor Olaf Scholz’s lackluster coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and the liberal Free Democrats is unsurprising. The ideological blend fits Germany, as Stalin might have said, “like a saddle fits a cow.”The election that may truly define Germany’s future will be held in 2029Scholz seems almost to have modeled himself on Britain’s Liz Truss; though it took him longer to damage the world’s third-largest economy, he has done a thorough job.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
spectator.co.uk | Leon Mangasarian
The demise of chancellor Olaf Scholz’s lacklustre coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and the liberal Free Democrats is unsurprising. The ideological blend fits Germany, as Stalin might have said, ‘like a saddle fits a cow.’Scholz seems almost to have modelled himself on Liz Truss; though it took him longer to damage the world’s third-largest economy, he has done a thorough job. Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, is expected to contract for a second consecutive year in 2024.
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Nov 12, 2024 | 
spectator.com.au | Leon Mangasarian
The demise of chancellor Olaf Scholz’s lacklustre coalition of Social Democrats, Greens, and the liberal Free Democrats is unsurprising. The ideological blend fits Germany, as Stalin might have said, ‘like a saddle fits a cow.’Scholz seems almost to have modelled himself on Liz Truss; though it took him longer to damage the world’s third-largest economy, he has done a thorough job.
