Ulrike Franke

Laws on LAWS? Germany’s place in the ‘killer robot’ debate

Germany – and all Europeans – need to get on with agreeing not only the technical rules around lethal autonomous weapons, but also whether we really want to delegate decisions over life and death to machines

Too soon for champagne toasts to GroKo

The grand coalition treaty is strongly pro-European in tone, but the devil is in the details – and it could yet be rejected by SPD members

German public says ‘jein’ to European security

A new poll shows that the German public is increasingly concerned with security, but is dismissive of its American security guarantor and unwilling to pay more to help Europe replace it

Pesco, the impotent gorilla

Criticisms of PESCO could equally be applied to Germany’s broader security and defence policy

Prime time debates with few prime time ideas

The televised debates sum up Germany's election campaign perfectly: they have been strangely devoid of proposals, and filled with reactiveness