The return of Germany-bashing?

It's always fun to take a swing at the Germans. Whether it is always justified is a different matter.

Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

There have been many good reasons to criticise German foreign policy in recent years.

During the Merkel era, German policy towards countries like Russia and China was based on the complacent and convenient maxim that “countries that trade don’t go to war.”

Through its refusal to supply Ukraine with even defensive weaponry, its stubborn pursuit of negotiations via the failing Normandy format, and its insistence that the Nord Stream pipelines were purely business, Berlin encouraged Putin’s mad imperialistic fantasies.

In other words, it is understandable that trust in Germany is low right now.

And Olaf Scholz certainly hasn’t helped matters.

Unlike his busy foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, the stoic chanceller doesn’t set much store by public diplomacy. While Baerbock has delivered emotional speeches to the German public after visiting bombed-out Ukrainian cities, Scholz governs from his behind the chancellery walls. Mostly, he allows his …