On foreign and defense policy, the Social Democrats have long been the reliable second pillar of Germany’s centrist course. But the SPD’s downward spiral at the ballot box has given way to left-leaning signaling that may well do the party more harm than good.

Already attacked as someone too soft on the likes of Bashar al-Assad, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping, new CDU leader Armin Laschet’s world view and foreign policy outlook is much in line with the German mainstream.

Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has done more than most to put Germany’s armed forces, and the country at large, on a geopolitical course.

In the Winter 2021 Issue, we look at the EU as a potential player on the world stage.