With Germany’s federal elections rapidly approaching, chancellor Angela Merkel is set to depart the political stage. What will the foreign policy of her party, the CDU, look like when she’s gone? In this week’s podcast, host Mark Leonard talks to ECFR senior policy fellow Ulrike Franke and Andreas Nick, a CDU member of the German Bundestag. How would a chancellor Armin Laschet approach China, Russia, and defence? And what exactly sets the CDU’s foreign policy apart from those of the Social Democrats or the Greens? This podcast was recorded on 1 September 2021. Further Reading: ECFR German Election 360 https://ecfr.eu/topic/german-election-2021/ Bookshelf: “Age of Unpeace: How Connectivity Causes Conflict” by Mark Leonard https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/144/1443237/the-age-of-unpeace/9781787634657.html “Has China Won?” by Kishore Mahbubani https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/kishore-mahbubani/has-china-won/9781541768123/ “From Cold War to Hot Peace” by Michael McFaul https://fsi.stanford.edu/content/cold-war-hot-peace “Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy” by Brendan Simms https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2013/04/reviewed-europe-struggle-supremacy-brendan-simms German party election platforms: https://www.aicgs.org/2021/07/a-guide-german-party-election-platforms-2021/