On March 26, the anthology "Germany and the Politics of Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century: Atomic Zeitenwende", edited by Dr. Ulrich Kühn, was presented during a panel discussion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. The anthology is the result of a publication project sponsored by the Stanton Foundation.
The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. George Perkovich (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace). The panelists were Dr. Ulrich Kühn (IFSH), Dr. Liana Fix (Council on Foreign Relation) and Dr. Amy J. Nelson (Brookings).
The well-attended event took place in Washington D.C. and was simultaneously broadcasted on YouTube. Several colleagues from Washington-based think tanks were in the audience.
Among other things, the key messages of the book, unexpected findings, but also how world events have developed since the book was written were discussed. George Perkovich managed to conduct an interesting and balanced discussion between the three panelists.
Ulrich Kühn came to four unexpected conclusions. All the authors were dissatisfied with Germany's nuclear weapons policy. This was unexpected insofar as the authors can be assigned to the opposing disarmament and deterrence camps. Secondly, it is worth mentioning that the Green Party has changed from an anti-nuclear party to a pragmatic party that can politically live with nuclear sharing. Thirdly, the political opinion on nuclear weapons in Germany has changed with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For the first time in history, there is now a majority in Germany who want to maintain nuclear sharing. Finally, with the turning point in history, Germany's identity is changing from a civilian power to a military power that wants to take on more responsibility in Europe.
The event ended abruptly while Ulrich Kühn responded to a question from the audience by saying that if Donald Trump were to be re-elected, it would be a bigger shock for Europe if the B61 nuclear bombs were dropped than if US troops were gradually withdrawn from Europe. The withdrawal of troops was a factor that European heads of state had already planned for - here the event had to be ended around 15 minutes early due to a fire alarm. No one was injured by the fire.
You can watch the event in full on the Carnegie Endowment's YouTube channel.