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𝐆𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐲'𝐬 ‘𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬’ 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 In a recent commentary by Gustav Theile in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a troubling pattern of German elite thinking was revealed: defeatism disguised as clear-eyed realism. Despite correctly diagnosing Germany's failure to de-risk from China the author draws a startling conclusion: abandon the strategy. The psychologist Martin Seligman calls this "learned helplessness." Repeated exposure to difficult, unresolved problems produces a cognitive state in which agency itself seems futile. Crucially, this helplessness is learned — and therefore also unlearnable. The op-ed has a logical flaw: problems of policy implementation do not negate the need for a strategy. It is precisely when structural change is required that strategic commitment is most crucial. The author never addresses the question of why the German state has become so toothless in the face of corporate decisions that undermine its own foreign policy. In my most recent book (Bloomsbury, 2024) I argued that since the 1980s, multinationals have grown too big to fail — and therefore unaccountable to democratic governments. Once heavily invested in China, they also become beholden to the Chinese Communist Party. The German government finds itself the weakest partner in this triad. The real implementation challenge is not strategic design but lack of political will to disentangle Germany from autocratic China. The author does not use the term that most precisely describes the challenge: "systemic rival." That omission is not an accident. This framing makes Merz's charm offensive less about pragmatism and more about appeasing a structural adversary. There is more at stake with this cognitive pattern than trade balances and supply chains. Germany's learned helplessness on China dependency is also a failure of strategic imagination about what comes next. Arguably, the roots of Germany’s learned helplessness lie in its security dependency on the USA during the Pax Americana (1949-2026). Even a reunified Germany never developed the strategic autonomy commensurate with its increased importance in European and global affairs. This inability to adjust our thinking to a radically changed global environment has become a strategic liability. A Germany unable to muster the political will to reduce economic exposure to China is catastrophically unprepared should Beijing decide to attack Taiwan. A scenario like that would be the hardest economic shock Germany has ever experienced - and the window for preparing is rapidly closing. The silver lining: Seligman's conclusions were ultimately optimistic. The first step toward overcoming learned helplessness is to recognise it for what it is. It is precisely this recognition that op-eds like this one prevent. What are your thoughts about Germany's predicament?