Germany endeavors to understand and promote Europe’s strategic autonomy in its own way. With regard to the relationship between Europe’s independent defense and NATO，Germany pursues a dual-track strategy：on the one hand it seeks to maintain a sound relationship with the U.S. and-unlike France，whose president Macron described NATO as experiencing “brain death”-considers the transatlantic relationship as indispensable；on the other hand it favors an independent European defense，in particular the European pillar of NATO. To advance the European Common Security and Defence Policy，Germany views the construction of a European Security and Defence Union and the development of the Permanent Structured Cooperation（PESCO）as means to promote Europe’s political integration；France，on its part，is more concerned with the ambitious goal of forging a common strategic culture in Europe and therefore launched the European Intervention Initiative，which is independent of the EU framework. From Germany’s perspective，Europe’s strategic autonomy should also be demonstrated by active roles taken by Germany and the EU in addressing international crises and conflicts. In recent years Germany and the EU attempted to intervene in crises in the Middle East and North Africa，but to no avail. Looking to the future，Germany faces a bleak prospect regarding its effort to advance European strategic autonomy. Germany will hold the presidency of the Council of the European Union in the latter half of 2020，and the promotion of European strategic autonomy will surely be on its agenda. But due to increased instability in its domestic politics，the limited financial resources of the EU resulting from the economic recession after Brexit and the world-wide outbreak of Covid 19-the latter leading to further conflict among EU members exposed to the pandemic-Germany’s efforts to bring about European strategic autonomy are very likely to end up as empty political rhetoric.