The Problem of German Ambition

In the UEFA tournament, Germany started its match with France by scoring an own goal. The idea of French players pushing forward aggressively, only for Germany to harm itself, was oddly redolent of international politics these days.

French president Emmanuel Macron has spent most of his presidency charging ahead with demands of reform and greater ambition for the European Union. In recent months, Germany’s government, led by Angela Merkel, has begun carrying this through with a series of ambitious policies meant to make European integration easier, and European geostrategic independence from America more thinkable.