On February 10, Foreign Policy published a biweekly column featuring Scowcroft Center deputy director Matthew Kroenig and New American Engagement Initiative senior fellow Emma Ashford assessing the latest news in international affairs.
In their latest column, they discuss NATO allies’ varied responses to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and debate if a peaceful resolution is possible.
Berlin could have decided to diversify its energy supplies years ago, and instead it moved in the opposite direction, phasing out nuclear power and choosing to become more dependent on Russia, including through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline deal.
It’s easy to say that in retrospect. The German perspective—as I understand it—is that the overall energy and economic relationship between Russia and Western Europe is too big to be disrupted over anything other than core security issues. German leaders will often point out that they traded for energy with the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War.
