Former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses Harvard Kennedy School on peace and order in a new era of multipolarity

In the final John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum of the academic year, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who served from 2021 to 2025, delivered an address on international relations and his assessment of the Trump administration’s policies.

The Forum, full to capacity, was also sponsored by Harvard’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies and featured a discussion with Daniel Ziblatt, the Eaton Professor of Science and Government at Harvard. The discussion was timely, the Trump administration recently criticized Germany for “humiliating” the president over the war in Iran and Trump threatened to remove U.S. troops from Germany.

“These are extraordinary times and there is a great deal to discuss,” began Scholz in his opening remarks. But the one issue that was forefront in his mind, he said, was the prospect of international order in today’s “fragmented, unrestful, and multipolar world.”

Scholz framed these remarks through the lens of teachings of philosophers such as Harvard’s Michael Sandel, whom he credited as a significant influence on his thinking of social justice, and Immanuel Kant.

“Kant’s ideas were first enshrined in the League of Nations following the First World War and then beginning in 1945 in the charter of the United Nations,” said Scholz.

Further, he said, Kant was an early voice rejecting regime change as a legitimate cause of war. “No state should have to fear being threatened, terrorized, or occupied by larger or stronger states,” said Scholz. And in keeping with Kant’s spirit, he said, the general prohibition on the use of force and the prohibition on interventions under Article Two of the United Nations Charter are now part of international law.  

But, Scholz added, the idea that rules based in the national order, multilateral organizations, and collective security systems could finally civilize the international community have not yet been realized. He pointed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the most glaring example. “What truly makes Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine a turning point above all else is something different, namely that it represents a fundamental break with the basic principles of the rules-based international order established since 1945,” he said. 

No state, he said, is simply the backyard of a larger, more powerful country. “And in light of these considerations,” said Scholz, “it is difficult to see how recent actions taken by the United States regarding Greenland, Venezuela, or Iran could possibly be compatible with international law.” The packed Forum applauded.

Scholz argued for a “post-imperial world” and thinks it is achievable. “A resilient rules-based order in a new era of multipolarity will be easier to achieve if we, the representatives of the old West, demonstrate considerable humility,” he said. “We cannot take for granted that our conduct will be perceived as honest. The trust, without which no rules-based order can endure, must be earned to many small steps and it must be reaffirmed time and again.”

Scholz emphasized that it remained crucial to demonstrate that democracy and the rules-based international order are not Western values alone. Rather, he said, they can and should be universal principles. “Principles that should be shared by like-minded partners in the emerging multipolar world.”

These partners, he said, must include people of the global south. By 2050 with the world projected to inhabit 10 billion people, he noted that Europe will no longer be the linchpin but instead one significant global province among other significant global provinces.

“Then it will be clear,” Scholz said, “Europe can still contribute to the success of global whole, but it can and will do so as a self-assured equal among equals.”

Following his address, Scholz was joined in conversation by Ziblatt. They talked about Scholz’s career path from student activist, through law, culminating in the chancellorship.  They discussed international security, the ongoing cost of supporting Ukraine, and the importance of NATO and international alliances. “I think the transatlantic partnership between the United States, Canada, and the European countries should continue,” Scholz said.

The complete Forum can be watched on the Institute of Politics YouTube channel. 

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Photography by Michael DeStefano