Cover page of the "Concept for Military Defence" document, featuring radar dishes, an F-35 fighter jet, a submarine, and a Leopard 2 main battle tank.
The German Ministry of Defence released a number of planning and guidance documents today, including Germany's first-ever Military Strategy.
An unclassified summary can be found here (in German): www.bmvg.de/resource/blo...
@jeremycliffe.bsky.social on the emergence of the neo-Gaullist right in Europe
www.ft.com/content/cba2...
The grounds were shifting already before then but the US threatening to take over Greenland early this year was clearly a breaking point. You can stick a fork in the trans-Atlantic alliance, it’s done.
Thanks indeed to @financialtimes.com for publishing me on the anti-US turn of the European right. From moderate conservatives to nationalist radicals, it is nimbly shifting towards a politics of autonomy. The centre and left must move fast - or risk being outflanked.
www.ft.com/content/cba2...
One of the most fascinating shifts in European politics recently (not making the far right less problematic).
All of which poses a big, perhaps generation-defining, challenge to today's European centre and left: what is your vision of strategic autonomy?
The European right, then, is evolving and building a new politics of independence from the US that resonates among its electorates: from the urban bourgeois right via the suburban IT class and post-industrial social conservatives to farmers and other rural voters.
www.ft.com/content/cba2...
It thus poses a real challenge to parties of the European centre and left: the right is (however inconsistently and imperfectly) building its claim to the territory of European autonomy from the US. What is your claim to it?
www.ft.com/content/cba2...
A real shift is underway. Witness Meloni's speech to Italy's parliament. She criticised past PMs for for being "satisfied with a pat on the back or an endorsement tweet" by US presidents, adding: "history is knocking at the door, and Europe must not fail this test.”
www.ilfoglio.it/politica/202...
But it might also be something deeper: a European right reconnecting with older ideals and icons of autonomy. De Gaulle is back in vogue (and not just on the right). Among radical nationalists, Schmitt, Spengler, Maurras and Evola offer darker forms of anti-Americanism.
www.ft.com/content/cba2...
Much of this is electoral expediency: in short, European voters increasingly dislike Trump, and the right is following them.
Take the Hungarian election: 85% of Tisza voters wanted a different relationship with the US.
ecfr.eu/article/why-...
But Trump's tariffs then Greenland then Iran have tipped both parts of the European right away from the US. Moderate conservatives are zig-zagging their way towards European independence, but the radicals, ever nimble, are taking a more direct route.
www.ft.com/content/cba2...
2024-25 will come to be seen as a distinct period in the history of the European right, in which the continent's Atlanticist centre-right and its radical right both sought the American administration's favour.
www.ft.com/content/cba2...
Thanks indeed to @financialtimes.com for publishing me on the anti-US turn of the European right. From moderate conservatives to nationalist radicals, it is nimbly shifting towards a politics of autonomy. The centre and left must move fast - or risk being outflanked.
www.ft.com/content/cba2...
Who does this description of Kaiser Wilhelm II remind you of? (Written by Christopher Clark in 2015).
How could a real reset between the #EU and #Hungary be achieved?
The EU has a rare opportunity to recalibrate a difficult relationship after #Orbán's Hungary.
@jeremycliffe.bsky.social outlines four principles for a smarter, more strategic approach: https://bit.ly/481Aaof
Yes, by David Lammy
Moltes gràcies to the government and people of Barcelona for hosting us all.
6) For the centre-left family to come back, it needs broad events like this one: morale-boosting, unifying and defiant. But it also needs better "transmission mechanisms" (detailed ideas, policies, campaigns, strategies). Those are the next step.
5) Electorally, however, this political family is on the back foot. Sánchez and Lula both face difficult elections in the next year. Beyond them, there are few incumbent figureheads. The majority of the keynote political speakers in Barcelona were opposition figures.
4) And between the lines of that shared prospectus: an implicit self-criticism for being too much of a status-quo force (Lula: "we have become the system"), for being too passive, for letting others set the terms of debate.
3) But there *is* a common progressive agenda: a pro-affordability climate & digital transition at home; peace, rebalanced power and green development (paid for by the mega-rich) in the world. And a common enemy: corrupt authoritarians and their oligarch pals.
2) There was a notable difference of emphasis between global north progressives (who led on wages, pensions, regulations, renewables, defence) and global south progressives (who led on more systemic matters: financial & legal architecture, climate justice, multipolarity, order/disorder).
1) Pedro Sánchez is now clearly the preeminent figure of the international, anti-Trumpian centre-left, along with Lula a rare bridge between both pragmatic/radical lefts and the global north/south. He is a generational political talent.
The Global Progressive Mobilisation just concluded here in Barcelona. An impressively global gathering - with representatives from Europe & US but also across Latin America, Africa, Asia. My observations:
How could a real reset between the #EU and #Hungary be achieved?
The EU has a rare opportunity to recalibrate a difficult relationship after #Orbán's Hungary.
@jeremycliffe.bsky.social outlines four principles for a smarter, more strategic approach: https://bit.ly/481Aaof
Tomorrow (Friday), Commission officials arrive in Budapest for talks with Peter Magyar on the EU-Hungary reset. What line should they take?
My take for @ecfr.eu: the EU needs to combine a warm embrace of the new government with a steely sense of its own leverage.
ecfr.eu/article/four...
Tomorrow (Friday), Commission officials arrive in Budapest for talks with Peter Magyar on the EU-Hungary reset. What line should they take?
My take for @ecfr.eu: the EU needs to combine a warm embrace of the new government with a steely sense of its own leverage.
ecfr.eu/article/four...
Tisza (EPP) is a conservative party. Yet, the new parliament only has Fidesz-KDNP (PfE) and MHM (ESN) beside it, both in the authoritarian left space. In this way, Tisza still it represents the liberal-right pole of the current CEE pattern of authoritarian-left vs libertarian-right. Per CHES.
