Commentary
Andrei Kolesnikov
{
"authors": [
"Andrei Kolesnikov"
],
"type": "commentary",
"centerAffiliationAll": "",
"centers": [
"Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center"
],
"collections": [],
"englishNewsletterAll": "",
"nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
"primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"programAffiliation": "",
"programs": [],
"projects": [],
"regions": [
"Russia",
"Eastern Europe",
"Ukraine",
"Western Europe",
"France",
"Germany"
],
"topics": [
"Foreign Policy"
]
}
Source: Getty
Commentary
After Minsk, Is Germany Still a Leader?
If Merkel is synonymous with Germany, then German political and diplomatic weight has certainly risen to the height of true European leadership.
Published on Feb 19, 2015
Of course, nothing would have happened without Angela Merkel, the most influential European politician of our time. We wouldn’t have seen her and Francois Hollande in Moscow for a weekend blitz, nor would we have witnessed the magical night at the Normandy Four summit in Minsk, which conjures up associations with the Normandie-Niemen operation.
We have to understand that Vladimir Putin now resembles a seashell that is about to close: he has been cornered psychologically, and Russia’s farther distancing from the West, accompanied by the endless war, forces the Euro-Atlantic community to continue the sanctions and support Ukraine both politically and militarily. The high-profile European leaders must not have liked the situation and decided to act.
If Merkel is synonymous with Germany, then German political and diplomatic weight has certainly risen to the height of true European leadership. It is telling that Germany and France—two key states with a complicated history of bilateral relations and a baggage of past wars against each other—spearheaded the efforts to save peace in Europe. In fact, the Merkel-Hollande initiative looks quite symbolic and historically relevant in the context of the countries’ track record of military confrontation, as did the roles played by Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Konrad Adenauer. Of similar importance was the French participation in constructing united Europe, which would have been impossible without Germany, and the reunification of Germany, which grew out of the collapse of the Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall.
If #Merkel is synonymous with #Germany, then German political and diplomatic weight has certainly risen.Tweet This
Vladimir Putin was once considered “a German in the Kremlin.” From a psychological and linguistic standpoint, he has an easier time communicating with the West through Germany. Being a responsible and forward-thinking politician, Merkel understands that and has been trying to translate Putin’s “dialect” of Russian into the language understandable to the Europeans. And being the most influential woman in the world, she is bound to share part of her charisma with the rest of Germany.
About the Author
Andrei Kolesnikov
Former Senior Fellow, Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center
Kolesnikov was a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
- How the Putin Regime Subverted the Soviet Legacy
- Putin’s New Social JusticeCommentary
Andrei Kolesnikov
Recent Work
Carnegie India does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
More Work from Carnegie India
- Threading the Needle: India’s Path Forward with ChinaPaper
After the chill in ties between 2020 and 2024 that brought India–China relations to their lowest point in several decades, the two countries have engaged each other afresh. This paper argues that there are predominantly four imperatives guiding India’s approach to China, and they exist in an order of priority.
Saheb Singh Chadha
- Managing Divergence: India’s BRICS Presidency in 2026Article
This piece argues that India’s central challenge is not managing a single flashpoint but resolving the underlying tension between expansion and institutional coherency of the BRICS grouping.
Vrinda Sahai
- India–Africa Strategic Partnership: Challenges, Potential, and Possible PathwaysArticle
A partnership between India, a country of subcontinental size, and Africa, a continent of fifty-four countries, may seem asymmetric until one notes that both are home to nearly the same number of people—1.4 billion. This essay spells out the existing challenges to the partnership, its optimal potential, and the possible pathways to realize it over the next quarter-century.
Rajiv Bhatia
- Emerging From the “Zombie State” of Trade Agreements: The India-EU FTACommentary
The India–EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is shaping up to be one of the most consequential trade negotiations, both economically and strategically. But, what’s in the agreement, what’s missing, and what will determine its success in the years ahead
Vrinda Sahai, Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki
- India and a Changing Global Order: Foreign Policy in the Trump 2.0 EraResearch
Trump 2.0 has unsettled India’s external environment—but has not overturned its foreign policy strategy, which continues to rely on diversification, hedging, and calibrated partnerships across a fractured order.
- +6
Milan Vaishnav, ed., Sameer Lalwani, Tanvi Madan, …
