Unfogged also is lacking a global strategy.

I enjoyed the linked paper (or at least its first few pages); hopefully I'll get to go back and continue it.

It seems ironic that optimism should have ruled Germany so heavily, but it really did seem to benefit from so much "right place right time" that I can see their desire to make that a reflection of their choices. Not unlike the wealthy whose success is always from their hard work, never mere luck.

The last I heard of German foreign policy was a month ago when France and UK being pissed at them for blocking some arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

The responsible thing is to sell them nuclear technology and bone saws without telling anybody until after the fact.

Finally read. Does the EU do some of that geostrategic thinking and planning that the article describes Germany as abdicating? Not that it wouldn't be useful for a German perspective to exist, but I could also see why they might be happier kicking that to an upstairs where they retain a major voice.

In my mind, not participating in Syria and Yemen makes up for a lack in geostrategic thinking. The economic aspects of global policy (sanctions and such) are to a large extent handled by the EU. I'd like to be an optimist about further integration of the EU. That said, the last thing I remember the Germans pushing in the EU was that the eastern EU countries take more refugees. They did not succeed.

5: It does not. A Commission member is on record saying, with apparent sincerity, "We don't do geopolitics." While offering a partnership program to Ukraine, in the face of stated Russian opposition.
Germany (and Europe) still needs Saudi oil, and will always need an arms industry. That doesn't mean Germany or Europe shouldn't do anything about Yemen, but does mean arms policy needs to be well considered and made jointly. AIUI (admittedly not following the story closely) the German action wasn't.
Also, putting Western involvement in Yemen and in Syria into the same box is highly disingenuous.

The broader point, anyway, isn't action but inaction. Germany, merely by refusal to act, bars Europe from significant action.

I'm not disagreeing that there is a lack of vision. But I look at America's actions around the world, and think inaction is underrated. Maybe it's better to talk about specifics, specific actions taken, not taken or opportunities missed.

I'm just afraid to criticize right now, not just because what America is doing or has done, but because I have a very reasonable fear that the next day's news will bring something and indefensible on America's part.

To be clear, I was agreeing with 9 but not its author.

oops 9 was me.

9: The OP gives a laundry list of spurned opportunities offered by Macron.
Add to that denial that major problems even exist: Huawei, in the OP.
The Nordstream pipelines, pushed by Germany as if they're simply business projects when really they are dealing with a hostile Russia, increasing the collective and individual vulnerability of European countries to Russian manipulation.
Every major economic or financial decision since 2008: Germany has systematically prevented any recapitalization of banks, or states, any meaningful stimulus, any policy other than austerity. Why do you think centrists are losing to wingnuts all over Europe? Germany seems unable to recognize catastrophically failed policies even within Europe.

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Mostly OT: My cousin is engaged to a Brazilian woman. They live in Lisbon where she is a law student and he does human rights law stuff. They are getting married in Lisbon this September. I'd like to teach myself some Portuguese (European) so that I can get by when I'm in Portugal. By get by, I mean carry on a simple conversation and skim a simple newspaper article. I was able to get to that level after spending a month in Italy. I studied French in school and am still pretty good. Can anyone recommend online resources. I like to understand grammar but listening g and absorbing has also been important whenever I have learned a language. Videos with Portuguese subtitles might be helpful.

Linguists of unfogged, do you have any suggestions for free resources or good text books?

|>

Duolingo is good for basic-to-intermediate drills.

I've started using Duolingo for Spanish (almost the same situation as BG, my brother is getting married in Spain in November). I had a couple of years of Spanish in high school, heard it all the time in Queens and still hear it here (several of my cow orkers are Spanish and several others are fluent speakers of it).

Impossibilidades não façais,
Que quem quis sempre pôde: e numerados
Sereis entre os heróis esclarecidos
E nesta Ilha de Vénus recebidos.

I think I read the Medium piece a while back, I haven't yet read the not-too-long paper. The Medium piece was ok, iirc, but suffered from the category error of thinking that Berlin would collectively see the same things as important that Washington does, but without Trumpian stupidity. Pesky foreigners that they are, Germans insist on having a different set of priorities.

Less than a full presidential term ago, Germany took in a million refugees. Can I repeat that? Less than a full presidential term ago, Germany took in a million refugees. That is a hugely important commitment, and the word does not even appear in the Medium article.

It could very easily have gone the other way. If Gerhard Schröder had not called an early election, the FAZ and associated cronies might have been able to push Merkel out of the leadership of the CDU and installed their homeboy, the execrable Roland Koch. Very few people remember him today, but I remember how he rode high in Hesse while using the slogan "Kinder statt Inder," i.e., Germans should have children who grow up to be computer engineers instead of relying on people from India. Now imagine someone like that responding to refugee crisis of 2015. Yeah. (It's possible that Merkel would have seen off a Koch challenge; lots of people have underestimated her and the one thing they have in common is that none of them is a three-term Chancellor of Germany. (A possible exception to that is Helmut Kohl; on the other hand, she iced him so thoroughly that it's still possible to use him as cold storage.)) Think about how the refugee situation could have played out if the Chancellor had been something of a smiling Orban.

Nor does the Medium article mention Brexit. That's claiming a lot of attention these days, y'know?

If the quotes in the OP accurately reflect what Macron wrote, then he mistook the current coalition in Berlin for a social democratic government. Except for the part about the communitizaton of sovereign debt; I can't see the SPD going for that either.

Anyway, it is true that Germans (generally speaking) do not think on large scales in policy terms, that they tend toward consensus, toward small-ball, toward step-by-step actions. There are really good historical reasons for these tendencies! I've been in foreign policy circles a teeny bit, and to be honest, the folks I found most similar to Americans in the scale of their thinking were Russians. Take that for what it's worth.

I didn't link to anything on Medium.
Germany seems unable to recognize catastrophically failed policies even within Europe.
Can I repeat that? Germany continues to answer every Euro problem with austerity a decade into the recession, a century after austerity was debunked.
Nordstream isn't global, it's European; Huawei isn't even European, it's domestic.
Again, I've given a laundry list of problems. Show me that Germany is actually arguing for good policy on any of those issues.

laughable ("a permanent seat for the EU on the UN Security Council")

Is this so laughable? The French have a permanent seat that they don't really make much use of. Would it be so outlandish for them to trade it over to the EU for some other major policy concession on Germany's part?

It's a really old thread.