Germany is stuck with a crisis it did not foresee and can no longer control

Germany is often described as a ‘reluctant hegemon’ in the sense that it has found itself pushed to the centre of EU affairs by the Eurozone crisis. Peter Nedergaard and Holly Snaith write that the increasing importance of Germany in the EU has resulted in a particular brand of German ‘ordoliberal’ thinking becoming institutionalised at the European level. They argue that this has had some unintended consequences for Germany, which now finds itself trapped in the centre of a crisis that it can no longer control.