The good and the bad news about Germany’s rearming project

The German party system is fracturing as defense spending rises, but its place in a US-led security order limits Berlin’s freedom to act Europe’s political order is changing rapidly, but Germany remains constrained by the security system established after 1945.Current developments in European politics can appear deeply alarming when set against the relative stability that has prevailed since the Second World War, and this is particularly true of Germany, where memories of armed aggression against its neighbors during the first half of the 20th century remain vivid.But history doesn’t simply repeat itself, so any discussion of the profound transformation now taking place within Western Europe’s political systems must begin with the circumstances in which those countries find themselves today, because while comparing Germany in 2026 with Germany a century ago may be tempting, it risks obscuring more than it reveals.As the saying goes, God is in the details, and without examining what has changed in Europe itself, it’s impossible to understand either the opportunities or the dangers that its present upheaval creates for Russia.Certain features of German and broader Western European po...