What Does a Franco-German Split Mean for Europe?
New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast
11/10/22
•52m
About
Comments
Featured In
Europe is in a bad place: the war in Ukraine, energy crisis, inflation, looming recession, political and social tensions—the list seems endless. Perhaps most importantly, key elements of Europe's grand strategy are in trouble. Dependence on cheap Russian energy has ended catastrophically. Reliance on soft power, while effectively disarming, has proven to be a bad idea. Deepening economic and trade ties with China when that country and the United States seem headed towards confrontation is at best problematic for Europe’s future.
Over the last several decades, the relationship between France and Germany has been central to Europe's success. Regardless of who’s been in power in Berlin or Paris, that relationship has always been made to work. Now, however, those countries are obviously out of sync. Their leaders lack a shared vision of where Europe should go or how to get there. Their political and business elites seem increasingly at odds. The mood is bad and getting worse.
The question, of course, is how—perhaps if—Europe can recover if the French and Germans can't figure out how to work together. What ails Europe’s traditional leaders? Can this marriage be saved?
Laure Mandeville, a senior reporter at Le Figaro with considerable expertise in French, European and Russian politics and Friedbert Pflüger, a former German parliamentarian and state secretary for defense joined Tällberg’s Alan Stoga for this conversation about Europe through the lens of France and Germany. It was originally recorded during a recent Tällberg Foundation webinar and lightly edited for this presentation.
What do you think?
Previous Episode
Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble: Europe Looks at a Complicated Future
November 3, 2022
•52m
Europe is under considerable stress from the Ukraine war, a deep energy crisis, inflation, roiled financial markets, looming recessions, social unrest, and political turmoil—on top of longstanding tensions between northern and southern countries over economics and western and eastern countries over cultural and social issues.
Arguably, Europe in general (and the EU in particular) is a mess.
The question is whether these forces will combine in ways that could produce less Europe or more Europe in the coming years. Is there leadership at the national levels or at the European level that instead of merely muddling through could find new pathways to a prosperous, secure European future? What are the new ideas to cope with new problems?
In this special edition of the New Thinking for a New World podcast, Anna Palacio, former Spanish Foreign Minister, and Jakob Hallgren, an experienced Swedish diplomat who now heads the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, join host Alan Stoga to discuss how Europe might get from where it is to where its citizens need it to be. Their conversation was recorded during a Tällberg Foundation webinar on October 27.
Next Episode
Worth Repeating: Live and Let Live
November 17, 2022
•25m
2020 will be remembered as the Pandemic Year, when a deadly pathogen somehow moved from bat to human—and the rest is history still being written. Six out of 10 infectious diseases are zoonotic: everything from COVID and the other coronaviruses to rabies, West Nile, even the plague. In a Croesus-like effort to break the cycle, Denmark recently killed 17 million farmed mink to try to prevent further human infection—but that seems immoral as well as stupid.
Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka has a better idea. Dr Gladys, as she is known, believes that zoonotic disease is controllable by simultaneously working to improve the health of humans and animals, at the points where they meet. Her work, primarily with the mountain gorillas of Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, has contributed not only to resurgence in the gorilla population, but also to an improvement in the health and welfare of the human communities that live around the Park.
She explains her approach in this episode of New Thinking for a New World.
Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is a winner of the 2022 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Globbal Leadership Prize.
This episode was originally published on December 17, 2020
If you like this episode you’ll love
Promoted