“How” and “when” are not made clear.Īlthough the Chancellor re-emphasizes the importance of NATO for Germany and pledges again to raise defense spending, he seeks to globalize his trademark “watershed moment.” And here is the risk such adjectives raise the likelihood of confusion and a blurring of the whole concept. Scholz proclaims that “Germans are intent on becoming the guarantor of European security”, that the country is “a bridge builder within the European Union”, and an “advocate for multilateral solutions to global problems”. It is no longer simply a turning point requiring new strategic thinking and new defense funding for a safer future, it has become a plan that looks backward to inform the future, and has expanded to cover the globe. The Zeitenwende has evolved before our eyes. Skeptics of Germany’s foreign policy transformation will take note. They’re in the title: The Global Zeitenwende: How to avoid a new Cold War in a multipolar era. There are clues aplenty about what the aim might really be. Why, if the world knows what he meant is further explanation required? And yet explanation there is, 5,000 words of it in his article for Foreign Affairs. The words of Olaf Scholz in his follow-up to the Zeitenwende speech are a bit puzzling.
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