By Constanze StelzenmüllerChairman Cardin, Chairman Cohen, distinguished members of the Helsinki Commission,
It is an honor for me to be invited to testify before you here today together with my other distinguished panel members Yuriy Vitrenko and Benjamin Schmitt on the critical issue before this panel: European energy security after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 — and more particularly in my case, German energy policy and attempts to decouple from Russian oil and gas.
I want to emphasize here that I am not and have never been a government representative; I speak in my individual capacity as an analyst of German and European politics. I am also not an energy industry expert; I hope the value added I can bring to this hearing is my ability to contextualize energy policy within the larger issues of transatlantic, European, and German politics and policy.
1. Background: Germany, Russia, and Ukraine
Germany is a case study — perhaps the case study — of a Western middle power which made a strategic bet on a full embrace of interdependence and globalization in the late 20th century: it outsourced its security to the U.S., its export-led growth to China, and its energy needs to Russia. It is …read more
Source:: Brookings