Germany and the World: A Foreign Policy Conversation with State Secretary Thomas Bagger

In the quarter century after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, reunified Germany grew steadily more confident and powerful as the preeminent country in Europe. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has shattered much of that confidence, forcing the country to undertake a pivot as expressed in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s announcement of a zeitenwende, or watershed moment.

But what, exactly, has changed in Germany’s foreign policy outlook? Is the change in Berlin’s attitude toward Russia specifically, or in its stance on economic interdependence and dialogue as a pacifying force more generally? How applicable is zeitenwende to Germany’s attitude toward the Middle East, particularly Iran, or East Asia, particularly China? What about the military rearmament of the Bundeswehr?

There are few Germans better placed to answer these and other questions than Ambassador Thomas Bagger, the German Deputy Secretary of State. Ambassador Bagger is the author of a much-discussed 2019 essay in the Washington Quarterly, “The World According to Germany: Reassessing 1989,” and is considered one of the country’s leading public intellectuals and foreign policy professionals.

Listen to the full conversation between Senior Fellow Peter Rough and German Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Bagger at @hudsoninstitute.

Video Courtesy of the Hudson Institute.

[vcab]

Outstanding Interviewer.

Brilliant German Ambassador. A master of word craft.

Both should have focused more on the massive illegal migration from Muslim and African countries that is threatening the future viability of the EU.

[AlainMiscoria]

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