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Since becoming defense minister last summer, AKK has been making waves, most notably when she delivered a speech in Munich last fall that called on Germany to raise military spending gradually to 2% of gross domestic product and urged Germans to consider deployments as far afield as the Sahel and the Indo-Pacific. Germany already has about 1,000 troops in Mali as part of the United Nations peacekeeping mission there.

In the cautious world of German foreign policy, these are radical ideas. After the terrible experiences of the 20th century, many Germans reject power politics. With the fall of the Soviet Union and German unification at the end of the Cold War, most Germans shared the American feeling that history had ended. Germany slashed military spending and focused on issues such as human rights and climate change. Many also believed that the European Union, with its massive consumer market and values-driven approach, would emerge as a major power in a peaceful and rule-driven world.

That’s not how things turned out. With Russia and Turkey actively seeking to undermine European security, and the U.S. shifting to a more distant and transactional posture, AKK believes Germany’s situation has changed in a fundamental way. Her country must learn to speak and act for itself.

Persuading Germans that the return of high-stakes global geopolitics requires a more proactive German role in the world is no easy task—even if Berlin is cautious, conservative and working in association with its European partners. AKK sees the political risks involved, but thinks her country and party have no choice. “We can no longer avoid having more open and broad societal discussions on those questions. I am not afraid of them and as a party leader and minister of defense, I feel the duty to take a lead.”

The better-armed Germany AKK hopes to build would be a conservative force in international relations. The trans-Atlantic relationship would remain central, and German policy would still be grounded in both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the EU. AKK was the first senior German official to refer to China as a “systemic rival” of Europe. She would like to see much closer cooperation both among European allies and with the U.S.

Even assuming AKK can win the political argument in Germany, her proposed new direction for German foreign policy will face skepticism and sometimes opposition across the EU. Not all of Germany’s neighbors would welcome a significant increase in Berlin’s military power, and a more assertive German foreign policy threatens France’s endless quest to burnish its great-power credentials.

Yet things are changing at the EU level as well. AKK’s predecessor as defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, is now president of the European Commission, the most important policy post in the EU. Ms. von der Leyen has also been talking about Europe’s need to think more strategically and wants to strengthen the Continent’s hard power. If, as planned, AKK succeeds Angela Merkel as chancellor, the two most powerful people in the EU will be hawkish German ex-defense ministers.

There is something else different about AKK. Asked what gives her the self-confidence to undertake such a dramatic reshaping of Germany’s approach to the world, AKK highlights her faith. “It helps me to know that there is God and that I trust in God,” she said. “It helps me to know that whatever life throws at you, all the challenges, there is always someone you can trust, there’s always someone helping you to grow and to master the challenges.”

That message may strike some contemporary Germans as unusual, but it’s part of the ethic of her party. Konrad Adenauer, founder of the modern Christian Democratic Union, was a military hawk, a strong proponent of a democratic Germany in a united Europe, and, like AKK, a devout Catholic. If she becomes Germany’s next chancellor, AKK may take the CDU back to its roots.