podcast
“The Zero Hour”
Herfried Münkler on Putin’s war against the West: “Now the right of the strongest counts”
Herfried Münkler’s books on wars and empires are considered standard works in political science
© Jens Krick/ / Picture Alliance
Political scientist Herfried Münkler believes that Ukraine will lose its independence. He expects a break with the old world order – Europe must arm itself, including a possible EU nuclear deterrent.
The political scientist Herfried Münkler expects that Ukraine will no longer be a sovereign state. “One can assume that there is no more statehood,” he said in the podcast “Zero Hour”. “The price we are paying is that Belarus and Ukraine will be quasi-attached to the Russian Federation – in whatever form, possibly disguised and camouflage.”
Münkler is of the opinion that Ukraine was “allowed to fall into a trap” because in the end it had neither the option of joining NATO nor the option of “eternal neutrality”, the so-called “Finlandization”.
Münkler, whose books such as “The New Wars” and “Empires – The Logic of World Domination” are standard works, expects a far-reaching change in European and Western security policy, including a possible nuclear armament in the EU. “The project of a rules-based and values-based world order is over,” he said. “I believe that political concepts have changed so fundamentally in the last few days that, in geopolitical and strategic terms, not a stone is stuck where it was.”
World politics will no longer be “win-win” in the future, but will become a zero-sum game. The right of the strongest counts, thinking in terms of conflicts of interest dominates. China, the USA and “a little bit of Russia” would determine this future. The Europeans ran the risk of “standing by like a child in the dirt”.
“Europeans need to think about nuclear deterrence”
Münkler expects a military build-up in Europe. “The time of a very enjoyable, if not to say unrestrained, consumption of the peace dividend is over,” said the political scientist, who taught at Humboldt University until 2018. The armed forces would have to be “significantly strengthened”. It is also about deterring a potential attacker. “And that can only mean that the Europeans are seriously considering their own nuclear deterrent. That is also a break with many beliefs of the past.”
“Actually, we are back in a situation that Europe was in in the first half of the 20th century,” said Münkler. A time in which powers enforce their goals with the “instrument of military force”. “And that is indeed a deep break. Even for someone like me, born in 1951, this is a situation that has never existed in my life.”
Listen in the new episode of “Zero Hour” in addition
- a report of star-Reporter Andrzej Rybak, who was in Kiev before the attack and fled to Lviv
- An assessment of the n-tv stock exchange expert Katja Dofel about the shock on the markets
All episodes can be found directly at AudioNow, Apple or Spotify or via Google.