The return of the euro crisis and the German question

Since the summer of 2012, when European Central Bank President Mario Draghi promised to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro and introduced Outright Monetary Transactions, the acute phase of the euro crisis seemed to be over. But in the last few months, the crisis seems to have returned – and with it, the debate about German power in Europe that began with the crisis in 2010. Hans Kundnani argues in his recently published book, The Paradox of German Power, that the “German question” has returned in geo-economic form. Lord Giddens also discussed the role of Germany in Europe in his book, Turbulent and Mighty Continent, which won the European Book Prize for 2014. Kundnani and Giddens discussed German power and its implications for the future of the European Union.

Prof Lord Giddens is one of the most prominent modern sociologists and the author of many books. From 1997 to 2003 he was Director of the LSE.

Hans Kundnani is the research director at ECFR. He is also an associate fellow at the Institute for German Studies at Birmingham University.