”Many older Germans remember things differently. What really brought down the Berlin Wall wasn’t missiles or tanks, but engagement. During the Cold War, of course, the Federal Republic of Germany did take its own security much more seriously, but under Chancellor Willy Brandt it also pursued a strategy known as Ostpolitik that sought to achieve “change through rapprochement” with the German Democratic Republic and eastern Europe. Decades after Brandt’s death, every German politician talking about relations with Moscow talks of a new Ostpolitik, a European Ostpolitik, or some other form of Ostpolitik. Whether true or false, the idea that dialogue is more effective than deterrence is deeply embedded in German political culture.”
Marcel Dirsus is a non-resident fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at the University of Kiel in Germany
War on the Rocks 4 februari