SiteVentit has really three elements. One is geoeconomics, one is about geo strategy and one is about the military aspect. I think where most has happened is actually geoeconomics because this is about decoupling from Russia in other areas of economic activity. In terms of geo strategy, I think Germany needs to do more. And then finally, as the military dimension, the 100 billion off-budget fund headline grabbing, it was created. Now it is very slow to come into practice. The drawdown is very slow. Very few projects have actually been put into contracts. There's a problem with retention and recruitment in the force. A wholesale, very large gap on the
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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