“More Courage to Assume Global Power”

GERMAN-FOREIGN-POLICY.com – January 7, 2021

(Own report) – The German foreign policy establishment is entering the second year of the Covid-19 pandemic with new plans for EU global power. Whereas in particular western powers and their allies have been overwhelmed by new waves of the pandemic, at times being confronted with rapidly increasing numbers of casualties, “Internationale Politik” (IP), Germany’s leading foreign policy periodical, is debating the question of “what Europe lacks to assume global power.” The demand that the Union must have more courage to assume global power had already been raised in several leading German media organs last fall. According to a poll, nearly half of all Germans surveyed agree that the EU can “play a strong role in global policy,” similar to that played by the USA and China – particularly followers of the Green Party (52 percent) and those of the FDP (56 percent), along with the generation aged between 18 and 29 (70 percent). Whereas, the IP calls on “Europe” to enhance its “international impact”, former EU commissioner Günther Oettinger cautions against the “complete overconfidence” evident in many EU capitals – “a kind of hubris.”

“Setting Standards Globally”

Demands for the EU to vigorously assert itself as a “global power” had already been raised last fall in liberal and conservative wide-circulation media organs. In October, the German weekly Zeit-online called for “more courage to assume global power.” The Union “must consider itself a global power.”[1] A little later, the Minister of Development, Gerd Müller, and the former foreign policy expert at the influential Bertelsmann Foundation, Werner Weidenfeld, declared in “Die Welt”, a daily owned by Springer, that the “EU has what it takes, to be a global power.” “Its sovereign – the nearly 400 million people with their top economic potential – and solid military equipment have lifted the EU to the rank of a global power.”[2] Almost two decades ago, Weidenfeld had used similar arguments to declare that the EU was a “global power in the making” (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[3]). Together with Müller, he now argues that “by virtue of its economic power, Europe” should “set standards in a digitalized and globalized multipolar world.” To accomplish this, Brussels of course needs not only a “more operational political framework” – if possible “flanked by a European strategic council” – but, for example, also a “European” army with a “joint command structure.”

https://www.german-foreign-policy.com

Macron on Arms Race: European States ‘Cannot Remain Spectators’ in an Increasingly Unstable World

Sputnik News – February 7, 2020

Fears of an international nuclear arms race have been allayed with the end of the Cold War, but re-emerged as the United States under Donald Trump pulled out of several arms control treaties with Russia, including one that prohibited nuclear-capable missiles.

President Emmanuel Macron stated that European countries should act proactively in the face of a nuclear arms race as he laid out France’s nuclear weapons strategy.

Speaking to military officers in Paris on Friday, Macron called on EU member states to propose an a “international arms control agenda”.

He also suggested that Europeans should “not confine themselves to a role of spectators” at a time when the existing non-proliferation treaties are being called into question.

“Europeans must collectively realise that, in the absence of a legal framework, they could quickly face a new conventional or even nuclear arms race on their soil.”

Macron has dedicated much of his attention as president to modernising France’s and Europe’s military strategy. He has proposed a “true European army” to cut reliance on the United States, launched a military space force command and suggested a military intervention force outside of NATO, known as European Intervention Initiative, already joined by 14 European states.

The Macron government also plans to spend €37 billion ($41bn) to upgrade and maintain its nuclear arsenal over the next seven years — more than 12 percent of the total defense spending for that period.

https://sputniknews.com