“All of this is pathetic.” - Jeffrey Sachs Dissects Modern Germany
Mr. Sachs is also President of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network,a commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, and currently serves as an Sustainable Development Goals Advocate under Secretary-General António Guterres. He is also a frequent guest on podcasts, including The Duran and Judging Freedom.
Prof. Sachs, you created a stir, to say the least, when in October 2022 you told a Bloomberg News host on live TV that you believed that the Biden administration was behind the Nord Stream pipeline bombing. What did you hear behind the scenes after the bombing? Did any German officials and journalists tell you their honest thoughts on who they thought the culprit was?
Nobody from the German government would talk. I tried to reach a friend high up in the Chancellery but had no luck. But this is not a complicated story. The U.S. blew up the pipeline. Even America’s implausible alibi — that some Ukrainians did it — included an absurd “admission” that the U.S. knew ahead of time of the Ukrainian plans. The straightforward fact is that Biden promised that the U.S. would “bring an end” to Nord Stream if Russia invaded Ukraine. He said that with Chancellor Scholz standing by his side. Biden even boasted, “I promise you, we will be able to do it.” The deafening silence around Europe about the so-called “investigations” by Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and others, speaks volumes about this being an inside NATO job, almost certainly directed by the U.S., and most likely carried out by the U.S. as the reporter Seymour Hersh has described.
How do you explain this reticence by the German government and other European leaders to talk about the bombing? It happened to have been one of the worst acts of industrial sabotage ever and one of the worst environmental disasters to boot. The Washington Post in 2023 quoted one “senior European diplomat” as saying “Don’t talk about Nord Stream.”
All of this is pathetic. The U.S. did it and Scholz knows it, but he doesn’t talk. The same is true throughout NATO. It’s a real dereliction of responsibility and democratic accountability.
There are some voices in Germany, primarily from the opposition parties AfD and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, who are in favor of rebuilding and reopening the pipeline. Do you agree? What would be the benefit?
Of course, the pipeline should be rebuilt. The benefit would be to restart the German economy. Yes, over the next twenty years Germany should decarbonize, in part by shifting from natural gas to hydrogen, and perhaps using the natural gas plus carbon capture and storage to produce the hydrogen. In any event, such a process of decarbonization requires 10-20 years, rather than a sudden destruction of the pipeline.
President Donald Trump represents a massive break from his predecessor in so many ways, yet in others there is actually quite a bit of consistency. The Biden administration continued many of the protectionist measures from President Trump’s first term and both want Europe to import more American liquefied natural gas. Between this and European leaders’ fidelity to NATO, which ultimately means to America’s continued military presence in Europe, it seems like Europe has an extremely difficult time to stand on its own feet and make sovereign decisions. How long can this imbalance persist?
I believe that many countries in Europe will shift away from their current belligerence towards Russia once the U.S. and Russia end the war in Ukraine. This is already the case with Hungary and Slovakia, and many other European countries will join them. Of course, Britain will continue to be Russophobic. That’s been true for 180 years at least.
Can Europe act independently of the United States and what would that look like?
I’m optimistic that Europe can — and should — develop an independent foreign policy and security policy. Without the U.S. in such a domineering position vis-à-vis Europe, the European Union would regain its capacity for diplomacy, would engage constructively with Russia and China, and would also forge a stronger security system both within the EU itself and between the EU and Russia.
With the upcoming federal election, Germany appears at a crossroads. Is there a particular outcome that you hope for and why?
I would like a government that understands the need to end the war in Ukraine quickly to save lives and prevent the complete destruction of Ukraine. The next government should call off the Russophobia and re-establish normal trade and financial relations with Russia. It would be great if Germany’s next foreign minister behaves like a real diplomat, not a minister of war. The next German foreign minister should visit Moscow, or invite Minister Lavrov to Berlin, to reestablish dialogue, and should do so sooner rather than later.
Mr. Sachs was twice named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders and was ranked by The Economist among the top three most influential living economists. His recent awards include the 2022 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development, the Legion of Honor by decree of the President of the Republic of France, and the Order of the Cross from the President of Estonia. His most recent books are The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions (2020) and Ethics in Action for Sustainable Development (2022).