By Benjamin Tallis, German Council on Foreign Relations
The mantra of Western unity in response to Russia’s war on Ukraine conceals a major schism. On one side are politicians and societies that embrace a new hard-edged, forward-looking idealism in (geo)politics. On the other, disregarding nativists and populists, are two groups: the first, like German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, seem stuck in the recent past, clinging to the untenable (Neo-)Liberal Internationalist status quo ante bellum; the second, like French President Emmanuel Macron, sometimes appear too eager to put the ‘great game’ of power politics ahead of liberal and democratic ordering.
The new idealism’s standard-bearers include Estonian and Finnish Prime Ministers Kaja Kallas and Sanna Marin, Latvian Deputy PM Artis Pabriks, as well as Foreign Ministers Edgars Rinkevics (Latvia) Gabrielius Landsbergis (Lithuania) and Jan Lipavsky (Czechia). They are joined by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a leader reborn in the crucible of Europe’s response to Russian aggression. At the head of the pack though is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy who, channelling the courage and conviction of his people, has done most to pioneer the Neo-Idealist synthesis of morality and material, principle and progress.
With many countries caught between different approaches, the Neo-Idealists’ example now demands that liberals and democrats across the world consider our geostrategic choices and the ways in which they affect our politics at domestic, regional and global levels.
This talk introduces what the new idealism entails, how it differs from or goes beyond other approaches to IR and geopolitics, the challenges it needs to address and why it holds the possibility for a more hopeful approach to statecraft, grand strategy and international ordering.
(Without subtitles)
(With subtitles)