The Gaggle, 21. March 2023.
George Szamuely and Peter Lavelle sat down for a long, fascinating discussion with political economist Professor Wolfgang Streeck, emeritus director of the Max Planck Institute.
General
Letter from Europe: Germans to the Front
Sidecar, March 16, 2023.
According to Hofstadter’s Law, obviously a descendent of Murphy’s Law, ‘everything takes longer than you think’. Last year the first to get acquainted with it in a big way was the Russian warlord, Putin, who of course could have spared himself the shock by following the lead of Trotsky and Mao Zedong and spending some time reading Clausewitz. His Special Military Operation having failed to capture Kiev – planned to be finished in a matter of one or two weeks, putting an end once and for all to Ukraine’s endogenous fascism and exogenous Westernism – Putin had to face the unpleasant prospect of a full-scale war of indefinite duration, not just with Ukraine but also, in one form or other, with the United States. (…)
Continue reading on newleftreivew.org/sidecar
Deutsche Version:
Germans to the Front!
Makroskop, 16. März 2023.
Auf Druck der USA könnte die indirekte deutsche Beteiligung am Krieg immer direkter werden – und sich ähnlich wie die Rolle als Waffenlieferant entwickeln. (…)
Hofstadters Gesetz, ein Abkömmling von Murphy’s Law, lautet bekanntlich: „Alles dauert länger, als man denkt“. Letztes Jahr machte der russische Kriegsherr Putin mit ihm Bekanntschaft. Wenn er dem Beispiel Trotzkis und Mao Zedongs gefolgt wäre und ein bisschen Zeit mit der Lektüre von Clausewitz verbracht hätte, hätte er sich den Schock ersparen können. (…)
Weiterlesen auf makroskop.eu
Versión española:
¡Alemanes, al frente!
El Salto, 19 de marzo 2023.
Estados Unidos se está inclinando por la europeización y, de hecho, la germanización de la guerra.
De acuerdo con la Ley de Hofstadter, descendiente obviamente de la Ley de Murphy, «todo exige más tiempo del previsto». El año pasado, el primero en familiarizarse con este apotegma de un modo estrepitoso fue el señor de la guerra ruso, Putin, que por supuesto podría haberse ahorrado la conmoción si hubiera seguido el ejemplo de Trotsky y Mao Zedong y hubiera invertido un poco de tiempo en leer a Clausewitz. (…)
Continúe en elsaltodiario.com
Carta desde Europa: El belicismo suicida de las democracias autoritarias occidentales
El Salto, 19 de febrero, 2023
Esta entrevista a Wolfgang Streeck se ha publicado originalmente en la revista croata Novosti Hoboctn y se reproduce aquí con permiso de su autor y de la publicación.
En tus artículos escribes sobre la “post-Zeitenwende Deutschland”, esto es, a la nueva situación creada en Alemania tras el punto de inflexión que ha supuesto el discurso pronunciado por el canciller Olaf Scholz ante el Bundestag el 27 de febrero de 2022, poco después del estallido de la guerra en Ucrania, sobre la política exterior, de defensa y de seguridad alemana. ¿Puedes explicar qué significará este “punto de inflexión” para Alemania y Europa durante los próximos años y cómo se relaciona la misma con la creciente americanización de la política, la ideología y la cultura alemanas? (…)
Continúe en elsaltodiario.com
English version:
Wolfgang Streeck – Virtuous Germany
Brave New Europe, February 20, 2023.
Germany’s political elite has subordinated itself to US geopolitical strategy. Why and how explains Wolfgang Streeck in this interview.
1. In your articles you write about the “post-Zeitenwende Germany”, referring to the content of Chancellor Scholz’s speech in the Bundestag on the eve of the war in Ukraine. Can you explain what this “turning point” means for German foreign and defence policies in the years to come and also for Europe, and how is this linked to the increasing Americanisation of German politics, ideology and culture? (A telling quote of yours says: “Seen this way, the fact that the special €100 billion defence budget announced by the German government three days into the war will have its first effects on the ground only in five years’ time does not mean that it is wasted; it only means that it has nothing to do with the Ukrainian war as such”.) (…)
Continue reading on braveneweurope.com
Hrvatska verzija:
Njemačka se ponaša kao država u ratu
Novosti Hoboctn, 23. siječnja 2023.
Vlada priprema mehanizme koje će okrenuti protiv svakoga tko se usudi posumnjati u mudrost pružanja bezuvjetne podrške ultranacionalističkom režimu u Ukrajini i Bidenovoj administraciji. Svakoga tko ponašanje Putinovog režima pokuša objasniti na način koji ne uključuje kliničko ludilo ili genocidne opsesije proglašava se putinovcem, rekao je njemački sociolog i počasni direktor Instituta za studije društva Max Planck u Kölnu.
Na početku rata u Ukrajini njemački kancelar Olaf Scholz održao je svoj čuveni „Zeitenwende“ govor u kojemu objašnjava zašto taj rat predstavlja „povijesnu prekretnicu“ za Njemačku. Što to znači za njemačku vanjsku i obrambenu politiku? (…)
Nastavi čitati na portalnovosti.com
Die Ukraine und der Wahnsinn „Krieg“ mit Wolfgang Streeck
Podcast, 99 ZU EINS, 8. December 2022.
Mit Wolfgang Streeck sprechen wir über den Kontext des Ukraine-Kriegs, seine Potentiale zur nuklearen Eskalation, die Unbrechenbarkeit von Kriegen und ihren Auswirkungen, sowie der Rolle des grünen Bellizismus in der Deutschen Politik.
Listen the entire podcast on 99zueins.fireside.fm
MaxPo at 10: Closing Remarks
Round Table at MaxPo Anniversary and Closing Conference, Paris, October 21, 2022.
The Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo) looks back on ten successful years advancing discourse and building international networks in the social sciences.
A conference which took place in Paris on October 21, 2022, marked both the anniversary and the conclusion of the joint research endeavour that brought together the Max Planck Society and its Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne with Sciences Po in Paris and reflected the insights gathered on each of these topics over the last ten years.
Listen to Prof. Streeck’s conference contribution on mpifg.de
Politics Today: Interview with Wolfgang Streeck
In: Crisis and Critique 9 (2022) 2, 427-431.
Interview by Frank Ruda and Agon Hamza
1) We cannot not begin with the ongoing war in Ukraine. It appears on some level to be very difficult to assess or analyze such a situation, which is not only heated but also still intensely developing. In addition, none of us is a military analyst. But we nevertheless want to start with a rather huge question: What should we expect from this war?
However the war ends, or more likely: drags on, it will result in a resurrection under American leadership of what is called “the West”, with Western Europe closely tied to the United States, and NATO rather than the European Union as the dominant international organization for Western Europe. For a long time, there will be no rapprochement between Western Europe and Russia, therefore no French-led third-party role for Europe in the evolving post-neoliberal global system. Russia will be allied with China, Europe with the United States, both blocs getting ready to battle over global dominance or, alternatively, the structure of a bipolar world order. NATO will be the European arm of the United States, the EU the bridgehead of the United States on the other side of the Atlantic.
New Book – Democracy at Work: Contract, Status and Post-Industrial Justice
Ruth Dukes and Wolfgang Streeck. Democracy at Work: Contract, Status and Post-Industrial Justice. Cambridge: Polity 2022.
For more information see Polity website [link]
Podcast: Zeitenwende? (German foreign policy, with Wolfgang Streeck)
Spaßbremse, October 11, 2022.
Ted talks with economic sociologist Wolfgang Streeck, emeritus director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne and one of the leading scholars and commentators on European capitalism. In this exciting conversation, they discuss Germany’s foreign policy role in Europe at this moment of the so-called „Zeitenwende.“
Co-hosted by Ted (@ted_knudsen) and Michelle (@shhellgames). Produced by Isaac (@wuermann).
Wolfgang Streeck: Europe is Being Subjugated to US Power
Interview by Chris Bambery, Conter, September 30, 2022.
The economic crisis in Britian, the war in Ukraine, and the disorder in the Eurozone are all intimately connected. Chris Bambery spoke to Wolfgang Streeck, an economic sociologist at the University of Cologne and a leading commentator on European capitalism, about the crisis in the EU and the implications for Scotland.
Chris Bambery: Once again we seem to be seeing a renewed debt crisis emerging in the EU with Portugal, Italy and Spain paying higher interest on its state debt than Germany and its satellites? How serious is this and how uneven is the EU today?
Wolfgang Streeck: It is getting more uneven by the day. Economic convergence has been promised but was never delivered. Instead divergence between the center, Germany in particular, and the Mediterranean periphery has long been growing. This is a direct consequence of EMU, the EU’s monetary union. Lagging countries may be able to catch up with more competitive countries in a common market by internal devaluation, meaning essentially lower labour costs. But this has never been successful without being flanked by external devaluation, adjusting a country’s international terms of exchange to its real productivity. (…)
Read the entire interview on conter.scot
Not Quite Enough: How the Pandemic Failed to Save Europe
Review Essay, Society, published online, September 28, 2022.
Luuk van Middelaar’s most recent book on Europe, like his previous work, is serious stuff. Don’t expect your run-of-the-mill “European integration” spiel, liberally funded by the European Commission, dealing with issues like How-the-Commission-constructed-a-Treaty-base-where-there-is-none; or the encouraging results of the latest “European Semester” and what additional data Croatia must supply next time for even more economic stability and convergence to ensue; or why monetary union requires fiscal union to deliver its full benefits; and how the Treaties must be rewritten to consummate the unity of Europe by allowing for the magic of neo-functionalist spillover. None of the usual obsession here with the design and implementation of “programs”, their odds and ends and how they grow out of the infighting between the Commission’s General Directorates, the EU’s various supranational would-be authorities and its member states — all of this on the assumption that “integration” must ultimately move forward as foreseen by “integration theory”. (…)
Wolfgang Streeck 