Comments on: The German Question

By: Mitchell Laurel

Mitchell Laurel — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 02:33:10 +0000

The hard facts of geopolitics never seems to change.

Not that I suppose Russia would be master of Germany in any regard. They simply don’t have the weight for that.

By: Exfernal

Exfernal — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 12:26:31 +0000

Russia was never known as a lenient master. From the frying pan onto the fire, in short.

By: Mitchell Laurel

Mitchell Laurel — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 03:47:05 +0000

I’ve restrained myself from approaching the Ukrainian Crisis here since I’ve written about it in abundance over at A House With No Child, but I simply don’t agree. Russia is not only not overrated, it’s the worlds main diplomatic challenger to American hegemony. They’ve solidified their role further by allying themselves completely with the Chinese. One cannot understand modern Geopolitics without having a firm estimate of the collective powers of each nation. And the new Russia possesses enormous diplomatic strength. This is to say nothing of their other assets. They are the only country in the world who can offer Germany a way out. After all, only they have everything Germany wants and needs.

As for history, America and Russia also have a historically close connection. Russian diplomacy has always been present in dealings with the early USA, although its not widely known. That and the American elite despise Germans. I think the ‘cousin’ factor is very, very weak, and we’re going to see it in practice.
The last 50 years have turned all powerful states into serious game theory proponents, after all.

By: NRx3r

NRx3r — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 16:31:48 +0000

lolzer, these are good insights also. This article is good but makes the case from a geo-political perspective. There is also the historical factors at play. Europe and America are first cousins in this sense, and breaking that bond would take a really surprising turn of events.

By: Tru Lolzor

Tru Lolzor — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 16:07:01 +0000

I don’t know. There’s undeniably some good insights in this piece, but assuming that Russia is in a position to offer Germany to “reclaim its diplomatic authority without paying the corresponding geopolitical price” seems at best highly speculative to me. Russia is overrated. Putin, albeit bold, is crippled by an overreliance on oil that has consequences both internally and externally, and his Ukrainian adventure does not leave him with a lot of options on the geopolitical field. With European googles, it’s not that obvious that the scattered remains of a collapsed Eurozone would try and escape the US influence only to cower under the Russian umbrella. Anti-Russian sentiment is still strong in Europe, although Moscow remains popular among nationalists.
So this makes some sense from a chessboard perspective, but there is much at stake here and it’s getting difficult to plan any further than 3-5 years ahead. Let’s see how the Eurozone behaves and what the likely upcoming war in the Middle East will change in the game.