GERMANY’S SECURITY MANAGEMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE INTEGRATED SECURITY – CURRENT STATE AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

In June 2023, the Federal Government of Germany presented the first national security strategy (NSS). The NSS promotes Integrated Security as a new foreign and security policy. However, research has shown that the idea of Integrated Security is not new and that the integration of all resources of national power has been a goal for Germany for 30 years. Research has purpose to give an answer to following questions: Can the current organization of the German national security system support the idea of Integrated Security as a new security policy and what are the key requirements related to the organization, functioning and management of the German national security system that should be fulfilled so that Integrated Security can be implemented? The basic hypothesis of this research is that the national security system of Germany is not organized and governed in a way that can enable the implementation of Integrated Security, primarily because, on the strategic level, Germany does not have a national security council which could serve as a focal point and impetus for integration, coordination and government of a security system. In order to provide answers to the above stated questions in the first part of paper we explained Integrated Security and the national security objectives of the NSS, then we described organization of the three ministries and security services as the most important actors in the implementation of the NSS objectives at the operational level and at the end we did the capability analysis of the strategic level of management to implement Integrated Security. The research showed that the organizational solutions have not been aligned with the determinations stated in the NSS. The result of this research are proposed solutions for organization and position of the Federal Security Council which should be provided with competencies that will enable the integration of elements from all levels into a single structure which aims to achieve the national security objectives.