German geographer Friedrich Ratzel coined the word Lebensraum
in 1901 to denote geographical area where a nation could live and grow. The
Fuhrer made this as central focus in his campaign to expand Germany. But it
failed. Today Germany looks for domination not land. Here is the framework how
Germany gets about on her vision.
Facts
Being the country with the 7th largest
land mass in Western Europe, Germany possesses land area of 135,000 square mile
along with watery area of about 3.000 square mile. Hence, there is sufficient land
for her population of 83.5 million to be accommodated smugly. Yet there are political
and economic dimensions. Franco-German rivalry is historical and cannot be
erased or forgotten. Therefore,
domination is necessary to steer the Western Europe including France to
play subordinate role. This can only be done by making Germany an economic and
geoeconomics power house.
Analysis
1. Power spectrum has three components: political, economic and military. So far Germany has left France as the Gendarmerie of Europe as the latter has nukes in her possession. France is also a veto carrying nation in Security Council and has a strong political will to compel other European nations to toe her line
2. Yet, France lacks economic muscle: in GDP, Germany boasts above USD 5 Trillion while France is to be satisfied with about USD 3.2 Trillion. France has a weak spot in state wise generation of jobs. Unemployment rate continues to hover between 7 to 8 percent whereas Germany straddles in lower range of 3 to 5%.
3. Germany ranks third largest exporter after China
and USA with a boon of USD 1.75 Trillion compared with French figure of USD 700
billion which is meagre compared to the German quantum.
Synthesis
The following parameters would define where Germany
should concentrate in order to safeguard her lead position in terms of geoeconomics:
1. In addition to further integrate within Europe she needs to expand her geopolitical, geoeconomics and geostrategy relationship with China led Third World and Russia
2. Work for further stabilization of European political spectrum with special emphasis placed on Hungary and other Slavic nations
3. Take a neutral view in the case of steaming flow of immigrants mainly from the Middle-East, North Arica and South Asia
4. More than anything else maintain the position as
major political and economic centre along with investing in the domestic
military hardware complex.
My Advice
To avoid losing the grip as the leading power in Europe, Germany must navigate strategy amid geoeconomics by adopting innovative policies!
Cheers!
Muthu Ashraff
Strategy Adviser
Mobile: + 94 777 265677
E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com
Blog: Strategy Adviser
No comments:
Post a Comment