“The lamps are going out all over Europe,” remarked British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey on the eve of the First World War. Judging by the commentary of the British press recently, one would think this was about to happen …
The truth about Germany’s levelling up
Whenever Britain starts talking about decentralisation, Germany is reliably trotted out as a shining example of how to do it right. In 2004, for instance, the Guardian’s Matthew Tempest called Germany “perhaps the most advanced example of decentralised government”. And …
Germany’s cynical response to Munich
Palestinians deserve a better leader than Mahmoud Abbas. Last month, the president of the Palestinian Authority visited Germany, a country on whose donations his quasi-government depends. At a press conference two weeks ago with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a German journalist …
What we get wrong about appeasement
Much about the war in Ukraine has been unpredictable. Entirely predictable, though, has been the way stories from history have been mobilised by politicians and pundits to offer “lessons” about the crisis there: why it has occurred, what its consequences …
