Germany Is Thinking the Unthinkable on the Nuclear Bomb

It was early 2025 when US Vice President JD Vance made his bombshell speech at the Munich Security Conference about Europe’s “threat from within.” A year later, and a continent no longer sure of American security guarantees has used the same event to assess its nuclear options.

Only France and Britain have nuclear weapons in Western Europe. So should other countries, especially the largest power in the neighborhood, become involved? Germany is seriously debating whether it needs the bomb. Haunted by Cold War memories and legally restricted, it’s unlikely to go there. But it should use this historic opportunity to reset its relationship with nuclear technology in all its guises. The shuttering of its atomic power stations is equally consequential for its security, an act of economic self-harm that stops it controlling its own energy supply and hobbles its once mighty industries.