With Angela Merkel stepping down as Chancellor, the next German federal elections scheduled for this September promise to mark a turning point for Germany. Foreign policy issues promise to be a crucial part of the election campaign. In this week’s podcast, host Mark Leonard talks to Niels Annen, Minister of State in the German Federal Foreign Office and member of the Bundestag for the SPD to find out what a social-democratic foreign policy looks like. What would SPD foreign policy look like unbound by the grand coalition with Merkel’s Christian Democrats? What are social democratic policy ideas when it comes to China, Russia or European security and defence? And how deep are the divides between the SPD’s foreign policy and that of the parties they’re running against? This podcast was recorded on 15 July 2021. Further Reading: - ECFR German Election 360: https://buff.ly/3gJNvr2 - A foreign policy for a Green Germany: https://buff.ly/3vxdTcd Bookshelf: - “The Arab of the Future” by Riad Sattouf