In 2025, Germany faces unprecedented international challenges: the transatlantic security guarantee is eroding. International markets and trade relations are faltering. In the member states of the European Union, nationalist and populist forces are gaining traction and influence.
The federal government has a significant opportunity to counter these developments with a determined, clear, and nuanced German foreign policy. For the first time in over half a century, the CDU once again holds the Foreign Office in the new government. Together with the Federal Chancellery, foreign and security policy lies in a single hand.
It is now called upon to pragmatically organize freedom, security, and prosperity amid profound changes in the global order.
A Solid Guiding Vision as a Promise of Values and Interests
Undoubtedly, the tasks are immense and extend beyond the horizon of a single legislative period or even an entire generation. All the more important is a stable guiding vision based on clear and comprehensible principles. The following impulses aim to point the way forward. They are a promise of values and interests. A forward-looking return to the foreign policy legacy of Germany’s first Federal Chancellor. A promise to Germany, to Europe, and to our partners around the world:
European values and international legal norms form the foundation of Germany’s foreign policy thinking. The guiding framework of German foreign policy is the value system and legal norms of the Basic Law, European law, and international law. Living up to them is a constantly high standard.
At the same time, there must be a strong focus on interest-driven action. German foreign policy must be more interest-oriented. In addition to safeguarding the security of its citizens, foreign policy must actively promote economic prosperity and the increase of wealth.
The goal of German foreign policy must be a strategically sovereign Europe. It is in Germany’s interest that Europe can secure its strategic capacity to act independently militarily, economically, technologically, and politically. This requires European strategic investments in resilience, technology, and raw materials together with our European partners.
Germany must never call its alliance loyalty into question. Protecting our alliances, as well as the security and independence of our allies, is a core element of German foreign policy. No country has historically benefited as much from alliance integration as the Federal Republic of Germany. This must be repaid.
Normative alignment with the West must be consolidated. Germany would be wise to strengthen the European pillar of NATO and to actively promote normative alignment with the West within the European Union. Especially a Europe that must be capable of defense without the United States needs a firm guiding vision based on universal values.
Furthermore, German foreign policy should advocate for efficient multilateralism. Multilateral relations must offer benefits and advantages to all parties involved in order to ensure long-term societal acceptance and global capacity to act. Joint action increases the chances for successful international coordination and assertion of interests.
Loyalty to the State of Israel must never be negotiable. Israel’s right to exist and its security are immutable components of our foreign policy identity. After the Shoah, our country bears a historical responsibility that it can never and must never relinquish.
Intergenerational justice is also a crucial guiding principle for German foreign policy. All generations must continue to contribute for example, in the context of comprehensive defense in order to enable social cohesion and national resilience. Freedom, security, and prosperity are no longer a given.
Lastly, German foreign policy should legitimize its decisions and actions through transparency and clear procedures. Principles are not free from conflicto this also applies to those outlined here. Therefore, a procedural principle is needed: where principles conflict with one another, frictions must be openly acknowledged, and compromises must be argued transparently and honestly. Enlightened transparency enables resilience.
In times of geopolitical upheaval and internal uncertainty, German foreign policy needs more than ever a sense of purpose, clarity, and strategic foresight. Germany must never lose sight of these principles.
