The German Debate on International Security Institutions

Abstract

The security debate in Germany has been inadequate, in both quality and quantity, with respect to the magnitude of change in the international security constellation and the country’s internal situation following reunification. Gone are the days of major populist demonstrations for or against the stationing of new weapon systems on German soil, of parliamentary clashes over differing concepts of Ostpolitik. Today the German people see security in terms of employment, ecology, public order and the fight against crime. With rapidly falling defense budgets and decreasing numbers of soldiers, defense is barely a subject of discussion these days in the former outposts of the two mighty ideological-military blocs. More pressing and threatening dangers have entered people’s daily lives than the remote risk of a nuclear attack or a major conventional war on German territory.KeywordsEuropean UnionUnited NationsSecurity CouncilSecurity PolicyUnited Nations Security CouncilThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.