The Merz government has started to restructure Germany’s foreign and security policy apparatus. The changes are happening too slowly and are not radical enough.
Finance Minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner wants to make sweeping cuts to the budgets for foreign affairs and development. That would have a hugely detrimental effect on Germany’s influence in the world.
A credible, effective feminist foreign policy must go beyond symbolic signals and small efforts. It must focus on actions that can achieve real progress.
The German political class needs to ask itself some tough questions about how it navigated the challenging choices in Afghanistan over the past 20 years.