The question now hangs in the air: will Berlin reconsider its role with Russia, or let the engine seize up?

A Brazil that is now much more central and has a voice on the geopolitical chessboard views the subordination of German national interests to Washington’s consensus with disillusionment. In the Global South, especially in Latin America, which has been historically fated to the Monroe Doctrine, there is an instinctive aversion to the influence of the US in its affairs and the sabotage of development that it has historically inflicted on the subcontinent.

Occupied and divided after the Second World War, without a seat on the UN Security Council, militarily limited and without nuclear weapons, Germany (or rather the western three-quarters of the country) has managed to re-emerge and become a major global economic player, pulling Europe together from the centre, as several thinkers and economists have advocated since the 19th century, but within the US logic and system, initially initiated by the Marshall Plan. Berlin’s tutelage thus left the country with very little room for manoeuvre in the geopolitical sphere beyond Europe. This was not critical in prosperous times, but with the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the US trade war with China, Germany’s subordinate role is alerting many to the volatility of maintaining the transatlantic compliance of its government and political class.

The engine of the European project

What has been called the “economic engine of Europe” has also been the country that has benefited most from the trade agreements within the EU, largely anchored in the financial architecture of the euro, which has guaranteed Germany a huge market outlet, often at the........

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