Geopolitics in Germany - the Return of the Living Dead?

Are we witnesses to the resurrection of geopolitics in Germany? At first sight the recent emergence of a 'new Cold War' narrative on Russian energy appears as part of a wider renaissance of geopolitics. Yet, a closer look will reveal the presence of a stealthy quasi-liberal geopolitics, equally laden with spatial language that preceded the new Cold War. This article tries to unpack this earlier narrative of 'strategic partnership' that has remained popular within the German energy policy establishment. Here we encounter a story of cooperation between two former geopolitical rivals that are situated within a Europe that seeks to modernise a yet backward but adaptive East. Hence, what we could observe is not the death and rebirth of geopolitics, but merely a partial narrative transformation from one type of geopolitics to another. The article suggests that geopolitics could not have been dead, for it has always been undead.