A year after he promised a transformation, Olaf Scholz has done too little

FOR DECADES, Germany aimed to engage with Russia. It was a policy that allowed cheap hydrocarbons to flow westward and power Europe’s mightiest industrial machine. Luxury cars, manufacturing equipment and consumer goods flowed out around the world—increasingly to autocratic China. The hope was that the benefits of trade would over time transform the hungry Russian bear into a well-fed pussycat, saving Germany hundreds of billions of euros in defence expenditures while filling its corporate coffers. Everyone would win.That policy looked foolish after Vladimir Putin first attacked Ukraine in 2014, and collapsed altogether a year ago. Three days after Russia’s invasion, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the , or “epochal change”, to an emergency session of the Bundestag. He identified two giant tasks—to “invest much more in the security of our country” and to “guarantee a secure energy supply”. Twelve months on, how much has changed? The stakes could not be higher for Germany, or for Europe. If the continent is to become militarily effective and able to protect itself from economic coercion, it needs its biggest country to take the lead.