New Research Division Publication –
Germany’s Russia Challenge

• Fellowship Monograph 11:
  &quotGermany’s Russia Challenge&quot, by John Lough.

Dear Reader,

German policy towards Russia shifted sharply in 2014 after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its support for armed insurgencies in eastern Ukraine. Until then, successive German governments had sought ways to build closer relations with Moscow in the belief that they could encourage Russia to be a constructive partner in Europe. The author of this Fellows Monograph, who served as a Visiting Scholar in the Research Division in the fall of 2017, argues that German foreign policy was naïve in those beliefs, but that realism seems once again to be returning.

This monograph by the Research Division examines the complex mixture of attitudes and impulses behind German thinking about Russia and identifies the need for Germans to have a serious debate about the nature of the challenge that Russia poses to German and broader Western interests. In so doing, it provides an excellent overview of German foreign policy towards the East since the end of the Cold War.

We hope that find this paper to be valuable reading.

Regards,
Jeff

Jeffrey A. Larsen, PhD, Director Research Division

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