Overview

A sharp reckoning with decades of political blindness--and a wake-up call that could not be more timely. Jörg Himmelreich traces how Germany's deeply rooted 'Russia complex'--a centuries-old cultural and intellectual fascination--blinded its leaders to the true nature of Putin's regime. From chancellor Schröder's (1998-2005) fateful personal alliance with the Kremlin to chancellor Merkel's (2005-2021) catastrophic veto against Ukraine's NATO accession in 2008, the book lays bare a chain of miscalculations with devastating consequences. The Nord Stream pipelines, celebrated as bridges of cooperation, became instruments of dependency--funding the very war machine now threatening European security. But Himmelreich goes further. He uncovers the historical DNA of Russian autocracy, rooted not in European tradition but in the legacy of Mongol despotism--a ruling culture built on absolute power, territorial expansion, and the fusion of state and economic exploitation. German intellectuals from Leibniz to Nietzsche romanticized this reality away. Politicians repeated their mistakes. Can Germany confront the imperial threat at its doorstep before it is too late? Is the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz able to engage a European 'Coalition of the Willing' for this historic task? A rigorous, provocative analysis that redefines the debate on European security and Western resolve. --This edition is an updated version of the original German edition. It also takes into account the Russia policies of German chancellors Olaf Scholz and Friedrich Merz as well as of US President Donald Trump.

Full Product Details

9783838221113

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Dr. Jörg Himmelreich, lawyer, historian, and political scientist, is an honorary professor and has been teaching history and international relations at the École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris in Berlin and Paris since 2014. He worked for a German bank in Moscow, was assistant to the German ""Mr. Russia,"" Klaus Mangold, former CEO of Daimler AG, and analyzed Russian politics in the planning staff of the German Foreign Office; he also worked as Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the US in its Washington and Berlin offices and as Visiting Professor of the University of California in San Diego. Since 2005, he has been warning about Putin's foreign policy and Germany's energy dependence on Russia. Himmelreich regularly publishes articles in Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), Deutschlandradio Kultur, Deutsche Welle TV, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Spiegel Online, the New York Times, and other media outlets on Russian politics and history.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available