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

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.