Episode 137: Friedrich Merz: Foreign Policy Chancellor
Jeff Rathke
President of AGI
Jeffrey Rathke is the President of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC.
Prior to joining AICGS, Jeff was a senior fellow and deputy director of the Europe Program at CSIS, where his work focused on transatlantic relations and U.S. security and defense policy. Jeff joined CSIS in 2015 from the State Department, after a 24-year career as a Foreign Service Officer, dedicated primarily to U.S. relations with Europe. He was director of the State Department Press Office from 2014 to 2015, briefing the State Department press corps and managing the Department's engagement with U.S. print and electronic media. Jeff led the political section of the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur from 2011 to 2014. Prior to that, he was deputy chief of staff to the NATO Secretary General in Brussels. He also served in Berlin as minister-counselor for political affairs (2006–2009), his second tour of duty in Germany. His Washington assignments have included deputy director of the Office of European Security and Political Affairs and duty officer in the White House Situation Room and State Department Operations Center.
Mr. Rathke was a Weinberg Fellow at Princeton University (2003–2004), winning the Master’s in Public Policy Prize. He also served at U.S. Embassies in Dublin, Moscow, and Riga, which he helped open after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mr. Rathke has been awarded national honors by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, as well as several State Department awards. He holds an M.P.P. degree from Princeton University and B.A. and B.S. degrees from Cornell University. He speaks German, Russian, and Latvian.
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Nicole Bastian
Handelsblatt
Nicole Bastian is co-head of Podcast, Video, and Live Journalism at Handelsblatt and, among others, co-host of the weekly podcast Trump-Watch. Being foreign editor at Handelsblatt from 2014 to 2024 and head of the roughly 30 foreign correspondents , worldwide, she has a focus on international topics.
Nicole joint Handelsblatt in 2002, starting as Tokyo correspondent covering Japan, South and North Korea. In 2007, she transferred to Frankfurt, working as a banking reporter during the financial crisis. After positions as op-ed editor and head of the financial news desk, she became financial editor and head of the team of finance reporters in 2011.
She often works as a moderator for congresses and events and is an honorary board member at the Japanese-German Business Association (DJW).
Nicole has studied East Asian Economics in Duisburg and Kyoto. Prior to Handelsblatt, she has worked for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa), Germany’s biggest news agency—as a trainee, a business editor and business reporter in various German cities.
Chancellor Merz has received praise internationally for many German foreign policy and defense initiatives in 2025: suspending the “debt brake” to allow for more security investments, expanding the Bundeswehr, committing to raising the defense spending proportion to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2029, and a more active diplomacy on security issues with European partners. While those initiatives resonate with the German public, Merz’s government still suffers from a record-low approval rating and is constrained by a narrow coalition majority. Nicole Bastian of Handelsblatt, one of Germany’s leading dailies, joins this episode of The Zeitgeist to discuss what drives the chancellor’s foreign policy strategies and domestic public opinion and what domestic challenges he must overcome to maintain momentum internationally.
Host
Jeff Rathke, President, AGI
Guest
Nicole Bastian, Co-head of Podcast, Video, and Live Journalism, Handelsblatt
