Zeitenwende: Sea-Change in European Security

EU Today

Education

0 • 0 Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2023

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The rhetoric and reality of tectonic shifts in Europe and transatlantic relations since the Russian attack on Ukraine will be analyzed from various angles. Defense relations have been altered within Europe as well as Nato. Energy security moved front and center, altering and accelerating moves towards alternative and renewable energy sources. Despite these enormous pressures, the German traffic light coalition had difficulties adjusting its budget accordingly, while the French nuclear industry struggled to meet expectations. Beyond breathing new life into Nato (which was declared “brain dead” by President Macron and put into question by President Trump not long ago), Russia tries to influence the political discourse in the West, supporting anti-establishment groups and spreading disinformation. This major land war in Europe has changed the equation for European security cooperation and Nato as much as it has upended German and EU “Ostpolitik.” The US is asking for a stronger European pillar in Nato but is weary of any strategic autonomy. How can this and other transatlantic conundrums be resolved? What could Europe’s contributions be to a stable peace in the East?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to EU today, a podcast from the Center for European Studies, a Jean-Monnais Center of Excellence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
0:19.4	Thank you to the Erasmus Plus program of the European
0:22.1	Commission, the EU delegation to the U.S., and the U.S. Department of Education for supporting
0:27.4	our center and its programs. On this podcast, we sit down with scholars and policy leaders to
0:33.7	discuss pressing issues facing the European Union. We hope you enjoy it.
0:38.3	Christiana Lemka is Emerita Professor of Political Science and International Relations
0:44.3	and former director of the Jean-Menei European Center of Excellence at Leibniz University Hanover.
0:49.3	She received her PhD and her second PhD at the Free University Berlin.
0:55.0	Lumca held several visiting professor positions at universities in the US,
0:59.0	including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard University, and NYU,
1:04.0	where she was the Max Weber Chair in European and German politics.
1:08.0	She was the first woman to be director of State Parliament in Lower Saxony. Her research focuses on German politics. She was the first woman to be director of state parliament in Lower Saxony.
1:13.1	Her research focuses on German politics, European affairs, and transatlantic relations.
1:18.6	I sat down with Dr. Lemke after Europe Week, 2023, to discuss the Zeitend, Venda, or sea change in European security.
1:39.3	Well, I think that the war Russia started in Ukraine really is a turning point for Europe and also for security policy in Europe. When the war started last year in February, many people were surprised, including the German government.
1:48.0	Everybody thought we are trading with Russia.
1:51.0	Russia will not dare to violate rules of international law and just invade another country.
2:03.8	But I guess Putin felt pretty safe doing it because he thought the West was anyhow divided
2:07.5	and preoccupied with COVID and all kinds of economic problems.
2:12.9	So he could actually capture land that from his perspective is part of Russia, which is actually
2:21.2	not as Ukraine as a sovereign state. So when Olaf Schultz, the German Chancellor, gave his speech
2:28.8	to the federal parliament in February of 2022, talking about a Zeitn-Wende, I think he captured this moment really well.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from EU Today, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of EU Today and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.