A Lingering Trauma

No Trust In Self, No Money For Defense

It’s neither pacifism, nor a proclivity to free-riderism, nor (strictly speaking) a sense of moral certainty that leads Germans to shirk their security responsibilities. It’s actually a profound psychological sense of self-doubt that’s to blame.

Jan Techau is Senior Fellow and director of the Europe Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States in Berlin.