Germany’s National Security Premium: Escaping Dependency on Authoritarians

This episode looks at how Germany’s trade and economic model became so entangled with authoritarian countries that – at best, don’t share the country’s stated values, and, at worst – are active threats to German, European, and global security. Whether it’s how vulnerable Germany became due to its dependence on Russian gas or its current reliance on Chinese-produced solar panels – Germany has long underpriced and underappreciated the security risks of trade links with these countries. It has also often ignored warnings from allies about these risks.

We speak with our guests on the nature of these geoeconomic relationships and risks – and whether focusing more on trading with friendly countries – or “friendshoring” - can help address them, as well as about how Germany can be a better team player in Geo-economics.