8 – Germany’s Forgotten Friends: (Missed) Opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe

BerlinsideOut

Pivoting from key themes in German foreign and security policy to the country’s key relationships, BerlinsideOut takes the road, sadly, less travelled. Rather than ‘go West’ and look first to Paris or Washington, BerlinsideOut first heads east, to Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), scene of some of Germany’s most significant foreign policy failings in recent times, but also a site of great opportunities for Europe’s future.

Long overlooked or patronised by many in Western Europe, the region has struggled to overcome contradictions and challenges of its own, while battling to assert its belonging in the EU and overcome the chauvinist hierarchies that still see it as being outside the European ‘core’. We look at how, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western prejudices have been challenged by the leadership that many CEE states have shown, which some claim shows a power shift in the EU and NATO – and the new reality to which Germany needs to adjust.

Guests:

• Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Former President of Estonia (@IlvesToomas)
• Caroline de Gruyter, Europe Correspondent & Columnist (@CarolineGruyter)
• Alexander Vindman, Former Director for European Affairs, US National Security Council & Senior Fellow, Johns Hopkins SAIS (@AVindman)

Resources:

• Identities, Borderscapes, Orders: (In)Security, (Im)mobility and Crisis in the EU and Ukraine, Benjamin Tallis, Springer Nature
• The War in Ukraine is Emancipating Central Europe, Caroline de Gruyter, Foreign Policy
• ‘We told you so!’ How the West didn’t listen to the countries that know Russia best, Stuart Lau, Politico
• The American Pundits Who Can’t Resist “Westsplaining” Ukraine, Jan Dutkiewicz and Jan Smolenski, The New Republic
• Europe’s lack of Leadership: Is it the small states’ time to shine?, Minna Alånder, FIIA
• The Zeitenwende beyond Germany, Jannik Hartmann, Julian Stöckle et al., IPQ
• Benjamin Tallis on “neo-idealist” Lipavský – and how Ukraine can save EU, Radio Prague International
• Newly Released Documents Shed Fresh Light on NATO's Eastward Expansion, Klaus Wiegrefe, Der Spiegel
• Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment, Larry Wolff, Stanford University Press
• To Ukraine With Love: Essays on Russia’s War and Europe’s Future, Benjamin Tallis

This podcast is an original production of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). It was created as part of DGAP's Action Group Zeitenwende.

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