Much of this is nothing new, Lucas continues. Germany's "strategic timeout" began with the era of "Gorbymania" in the old West Germany in the 1980s, Lucas writes.

It remained intact after reunification and in fact practically so down to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine starting a little over two years ago.

In the intervening time, decades of influence peddling have provided Russia with an alarmingly effective penetration of German society and its economy, Lucas says, adding that Russian spies, thugs, and crooks have "run riot under the noses of the bureaucracy-bound German police and counter-intelligence services."

By way of example, Lucas cites John Sipher, formerly a top CIA Russia hand, who described these German agencies as "arrogant, incompetent, bureaucratic, useless."

Lucas himself recalls an anecdote told to him by a British agent at a time when Berlin was still divided.

"If you want the Kremlin to take something seriously, give it to the Germans and tell them it's a secret. It'll be on every desk in the Politburo the next morning." That old joke still raises a knowing laugh, Lucas adds.

Of more concrete recent episodes, the piece points towards high-ranking military officers discussing the details of donating Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, or of Chancellor Scholz letting slip the presence of French and British military personnel there.

This of course is no laughing matter; Ukrainians and their friends are justifiably furious about all this, Lucas writes.

The Zeitenwende that the Chancellor Scholz announced in the wake of the invasion has proven to be deeply disappointing, while Germany's military remains under-equipped, ill-led, cash-strapped and overstretched, Lucas writes.

Part of the reason for an apparent aversion to hard-thinking about security, Lucas rights (calling it "self-indulgent), is the result of the two catastrophic defeats in the world wars of the 20th century, and Germany's position as a potential nuclear battleground during the Cold War which dominated the latter decades of that century.

Among other things, this has fostered both anti-militarism and anti-Americanism.

"Even the worst peace is better than the best war," a leading German think-tank member said early on in the current war.

The idea that freedom might be worth dying for counts for nothing, yet greed, by contrast, counts for a lot, Lucas adds.

By way of example, Lucas cites the case of Jan Marsalek, former chief operating officer of the collapsed secure payments firm Wirecard and formerly one of Germany's largest companies; Marsalek has just been unmasked as a spy on behalf of Russia's GRU military intelligence.

The company had enjoyed a degree of political protection which Lucas describes as "extraordinary," given that it apparently engaged in a fraudulent business model and was among other things a useful source for spies engaging in blackmail opportunities – bearing in mind the types of transactions it was sometimes used for.

The latest spy scandal involves a senior official in the German foreign intelligence service, identified under German media rules only as "Carsten L.," and an alleged accomplice, "Arthur E."

Both men went on trial in December for spying for Russia, after being arrested, not as a result of German diligence but thanks to an FBI tip, Lucas continues.

Of more hopeful signs, Lucas writes that despite everything, Germany is the second-largest donor to Ukraine (after the US) in absolute terms, at €27.8 billion given to date.

He says he is also more optimistic about current foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, and notes that Germany confounded expectations in ending its dependence on Russian natural gas following the invasion.

The original CEPA piece is here.

CEPA 's main stated aims include fostering a strong transatlantic alliance and to build networks of future leaders well-versed in Atlanticism.

Edward Lucas is a columnist with The Times and formerly with The Economist, and is a prospective Liberal Democrat candidate at next year's UK general election.

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