Central planning infrastructures could have helped Germany avoid many pitfalls while navigating multiple crises, she writes.
Germany needs a strategic planning organisation, such as a National Security Council, in order to fulfill its geopolitical responsibilities and secure peace and economic prosperity, writes Hertie School President Cornelia Woll in a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung op-ed from 22 September. Woll and co-authors Moritz Schularick, Professor of Economics at Sciences Po Paris and the University of Bonn, and Guntram Wolff, Director of the German Council on Foreign Relations, argue that international crises – such as the ongoing gas crisis, the war in Ukraine or the 2008 financial crisis – could have been foreseen and handled better if the country had such an advisory body.
While there is plenty of public debate on current events and the government’s response, “there are currently few methods available to deal with unpleasant scenarios rigorously and at the highest level”, according to the experts. “The present-day pressures of pandemic, climate change, war and energy supply shortages may leave little time for long-term strategic planning in everyday politics. But Germany must recognise the need for planning outside its comfort zone and create institutions for it,” they write.
A National Security Council based at the German Chancellery and staffed with both decision-makers and independent experts could be such an institution, they write.
Read the whole op-ed (in German).
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Cornelia Woll, President and Professor of International Political Economy