Three days after the Russian invasion, Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholsk gave a big speech. He was overturning a long-standing ban on Germany supplying weapons into conflict zones. And he announced a €100 billion special fund for defence purchases to re-equip the Bundestwerk. So that was momentous and healed at the time as historic, but subsequently he's been criticised for actually not quite meeting those targets.
For decades, Germany has downplayed military spending. But after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the government reversed its longstanding ban on sending weapons into war zones, and announced a plan to spend an additional 100 billion euros to upgrade its armed forces.
Bloomberg senior editor Alan Crawford joins this episode to explain why the country’s defense industry is booming—and why that’s dividing a public wary of a German military resurgence. And military analyst Dr. Bastian Giegerich makes the case for why Germany should be spending even more to prepare for current and future threats.
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