In this video I talk with Dr. Georg Löfflmann (https://twitter.com/gloefflmann) from the University of Warwick about the role of Germany in the United States’ grand strategy.
Cover design by vonKickass.
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Georg Löfflmann, American Grand Strategy under Obama: Competing Discourses (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017).
#strategy #unitedstates #germany
00:00 Intro
00:21 What is Grand Strategy?
01:15 US Grand Strategy
05:01 US View on Russia
06:49 US View on Germany
09:38 Poland’s Position
13:08 Germany & Indo-Pacific
14:02 It will cost
15:29 Poland & Germany’s Role
17:23 Airborne Formations
source
Economically and from a demographics point of view, you wonder how Poland can achieve anything of the high flying military goals. Without millions of new migrant workers the Polish economy could collapse, for manning all this equipment or even training on it a significant part of its workforce needs to be reallocated. Nobody talks about that as if the goals of the Polish government will be easily achievable. Workforce shortage was a huge problem in Poland even before the Covid crisis.
Hello. Does it make sense to have a video about what is the strategy of NATO related to the border countries now ? I am from Romania, i acknowledge the fact that Poland will have a big influence on the nord-east part. What about south-east ? At one point, last year, there was the discussion that Romania will buy submarines from France to patrol the Black Sea and then Russia started to make a fuss about it. I know that Romania is under France command but yea…it would be interesting to understand more… P.S. – Romania is not Poland…we do not even dream to buy 1 A1 Abrams, we still have soviet tanks so yea…
I thought this would be a Kraut video😂
Tl;dw Germany is a joke militarily.
Questions to Germans. Would you fight for Lithuania?
germany isnt under-investing. the % of GPD is calculated differently and includes less than other countries calculations. so overall related spending is higher.
what germany is lacking is efficiency of the investments. money is burned.
I’m wondering whether Germany really is going to change its long term stance towards Russia and national security in general.
We mustn’t forget that there are influential political and business figures in Germany that have benefited immensely from Germany’s relationship with Russia (or perhaps they’re simply corrupt or blackmailed).
I mean gee, just look at some of the leaders of the SPD and tell me they’re not directly or indirectly controlled by the Russian intelligence…
These people are going to exert pressure on the government in order for it to go back to business as usual i.e buying cheap resources from Russia, keeping Bundeswehr as weak as possible, no serious counterespionage against Russians and preventing NATO from getting too strong in the East (hurr provoking Russia!!1 durr) and so on.
I hope Germany learned its lesson but I am really not sure if that’s true and even if it is, it looks like it might not be enough.
I wonder how much and how fast Germany would invest in its defense if the U.S. closed, or moved to another country, its bases in Germany. As much as I am appalled by Trump, he has a point about Germany resting on its laurels in terms of NATO responsibilities. I personally do not want my tax money to be spent on Germany’s military defense given its choices these last 23 years, and especially in 2022.
6:40 When was this interview conducted? He says that neither the US nor Germany has moved to supply tanks to Ukraine. This was not the case as of the video's release on February 3, 2023.
I think the arguments promoting bigger spending defense are a bit optimistic. Because yeah Russia is a treath and it's likely Germany will spend more, but what we are seeing too is massive wealth inequalities problem and large social movement for better pay in the UK and France. Germany spent twice what is suggested in this video for energy prices to avoid those movements.
So thinking Germany will consistently spend more to defend it's territory is very optimistic.
Germany, and some other countries HAVE ripped off the US. I'm tired of MY tax money going to protect Germany and many of the other countries who sit on their asses and won't invest.for protection!! I say if you do t meet "targets" for NATO, them you get booted. Stop bragging about "quality of life" in a country where you sponge off of others. Pay up or get out!
I just want to point out that this video seem to assume Germany interest lay in following the US interest, but why would they? They could spend the money elsewhere.
Yeah it sucks for the US they have to spread their force around like that, but I'm sure lot of German do not care about Taiwan falling if the Russian are kept at the border of Poland.
Germany should be shown as she is, a pawn.
The US Grand Strategy for Europe since the end of the cold War has been to maintain and if possible enlarge the rift between Russia and the EU so that WEstern European economic and buying power and Russian resources could never merge into a free trade zone, because that would be the end of being THE economic superpower in the world. That's why Yeltsin#s coup in 1993 was supported by Clinton and ever since they found enough possibilities to meddle and divide. Zbigniew Brzezinski, who famously armed the Afghans against the Soviets, creating a small Al Quaida problem in the process, described as early as 1997 how useful Ukraine could be in this grand strategy.
Russia is completely and fully responsible for that awful war, no question. But it was 30 years of skillfull American work that got Putin to flip the table. Europe, divided, as usual, being a sort of passive, naive onlooker.
Thx 4 information
Being a good obedient dog basically
Nobody needs German leadership. We need Germany to start meeting its commitments and to start being a reliable ally and stop supporting totalitarian regimes like China Russia and Iran
Get conscription going in Germany. And put the German army under command of the Polish .
I think that is a fair strategy that Germany owes Poland.
Just a little bit off on one saying that was brought up. In full it is "The reason why the US stayed in Europe after the Second World War is to keep Britain up, the Germans down, and the Russians out."
New thumbnail design I notice upon return. Very, very different.
Hope it works for you.🦘
I like the country ball cartoons, but the United States government doesn't have any grand strategy. Our presidents always prefer to think about events inside the U.S.A., especially since even people in California have a stronger impact on the reelection of a president than a German. That's just the way it is. Look in the dictionary, and next to the entry for "ad hoc" or "shambolic," and you will find an illustration of U.S. foreign policy.
Obama and Grand Strategy is a oxymoron. Look at his fails in the Ukraine, Syria and Libya.
Spending of NATO countries, Chinese island making etc. Very many wonderful policy papers, but just papers and words. Germany let' its military atrophy. Going forward Germany needs to actually spend and not just talk. No one in the US wanted or wants to see a military weak Germany.
Very interesting, but also telling that for instance France isn't mentioned at all regarding the Indo-pacific even though there is more than a million citizens there.. And that France is THE defense partner for the USA in the EU, since they are the only one able to deploy and accept war scenarios (killing and getting killed)..
I think löfflmans proposal is unfeasible. If germany really wants to credibly deter russia AND do peacekeeping operations on any realistc scale AND play any realistic role in the indo pacific, then it not only needs to break its bank and reintroduce conscription but also deploy conscripts abroad on a regular basis. This is unfeasible. Instead, countries that are not threatened by russia like spain and portugal should take over the low level stuff, alternatively certain countries like pakistan are willing to deploy soldiers for such missions for hard cash, the indo pacific should be the responsiblilty of the US,UK and France and Germany should take over the lead in eastern europe. Given how well the ukraine has fought and that these countries will struggle far more with equipping soldiers than with finding them, we should focus on providing hardware and ammo and to a lesser extent deploying troops. Given that there are two divisions in the heer there will be a hard limit at about two brigades deployed unless we reintroduce conscription. That is the most that is realistically possible imho.
Batman'S going through a lot of Robins, though…