Double-Track Decision Research Articles

Beyond Hollanditis: The Campaigns against the Cruise Missiles in the Benelux (1979–1985)

This article compares the anti-nuclear weapon campaigns in the Netherlands and Belgium during the political struggle against the NATO Double-Track Decision of December 1979 to deploy new nuclear missiles in Western Europe. While the traditional view is that the Dutch peace movement, and more specifically the Inter-Church Peace Council (IKV), was unique for leading the Europe-wide protests against nuclear weapons, this comparison reveals that the IKV campaign was in most aspects not very different from the anti-nuclear campaign of its counterpart in Belgium, the Flemish Action Committee Against Nuclear Weapons (VAKA). Both peace movements used similar methods, strategies and forms of actions, and both succeeded in making their respective governments repeatedly delay the final decision on cruise missile deployment until 1985.

Politics of Emotions: Journalistic Reflections on the Emotionality of the West German Peace Movement, 1979-1984

This article analyzes the reaction of the West German press to the powerful peace movement that gripped the Federal Republic of Germany between 1979 and 1984. Following NATO's double track decision and Russia's invasion of Afghanistan, thousands of pacifist and peace activists participated in rallies, meetings, and sit-ins to protest above all the politics of NATO. Unnerved by the amassing of nuclear, protesters expressed their fears and anxieties highly visible on placards and in pamphlets. This public display of “fear of atom” led to an intensive media debate about the validity and possible dangers of the protesters' emotionality. The press's coverage of the peace movement and the question of how protesters expressed their fears turned into a discussion over legitimate political participation.

How Udo Wanted to Save the World in ‘Erich's Lamp Shop’: Lindenberg's Concert in Honecker's East Berlin, the NATO Double-Track Decision and Communist Economic Woes

AbstractThe concert given by the West German rock star Udo Lindenberg in East Berlin on 25 October 1983 links cultural, political, diplomatic and economic history. The East German regime had banned performances by the anti-nuclear peace activist and musician since the 1970s, but eventually allowed a concert, hoping to prevent the deployment of American nuclear missiles in West Germany. In allowing this event, however, East Germany neither prevented the implementation of the NATO double-track decision of 1979 nor succeeded in controlling the political messages of the impertinent musician. Desperate for economic aid from the West, East Germany decided to cancel a promised Lindenberg tour in 1984, causing widespread disillusionment among his fans in the country.

Petra Kelly als Mittlerin in der transnationalen Friedensbewegung gegen den NATO-Doppelbeschluss

As the peace movement against the NATO Double-Track Decision should be seen as a transnational phenomenon – like it is argued in this article – the (West-)German politician of Alliance ’90/The Greens, Petra Kelly, can be interpreted as an important mediator in this transnational movement. While claiming to represent the interests of the social movement in the German Bundestag, Kelly established relations between members of the governments and anti-war protesters, acted herself as peace activist, held speeches at protest meetings in several West European Countries, in Japan and in the United States. In addition, Kelly also acted as a contact person for the East German civil rights activists and dissidents. Her widespread engagement for the peace movement evoked national and international response. By reference to relevant sources this article aims at portraying Petra Kelly’s role within both the East and the West German peace movement – embedded in a transnational context.

A Personal History of Canada-Germany

For almost three decades, I have had the privilege of observing the political, economic, social, and cultural changes in Germany. It was a period that was characterized by such terms as Mittelstreckenraketen (medium -ran ge mis- siles), SS20S, Pershing missiles, and the stationing of nuclear weapons on German soil. All this was accompanied by the NATO debate on the Dop- pelbeschluss, the double-track decision put forward and championed by Hel- mut Schmidt. I was well acquainted with the pioneers of the peace movement and closely associated with the emergence of the pacifist and en- vironmental trends that led to the creation of the Green party in Germany. These are the historical moments that fundamentally shaped and changed the Bonner Republik. Of course all this happened against the backdrop of the Cold War, Ostpolitik, and the normalization of the so-called innerdeutsche Beziehungen, relations between the two German states. In those years, no one could have foreseen the radical outcome of 1989, with the end of the Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany, and the emergence of this reunified country, with Berlin once again its capital. What a road it has been. I count myself lucky to have been able to witness these profound changes, which allowed Germany to reconcile itself with the past and to gradually become a normal country again, an important player on the European and international stage, not only economically but also politically and culturally.The end of this long road is in sight. When I think of the consequences of the Second World War and the Franco-German efforts leading up to the signing of the Elysee treaty by de Gaulle and Adenauer, sealing a friendship crucial for the future of Europe, I cannot help but recognize how the various German governments worked relentlessly to realize the dream. Right from the beginning, this involved creating ties strong enough to prevent any repeat of the cruel experiences of the 20th century. This desire to be integrated in a larger entity - beyond national borders - gave rise to the European Union, whose roots lie in the European Coal and Steel Community, the 1957 treaty of Rome, and the decisions to consolidate and expand the EU from the six founding countries to the 27 members today. Germany has achieved its dream of overcoming its isolation and upheaval to create solid ties with its neighbours, large and small, and to become a country no longer on the eastern margins of the European Community but at the geographical centre of the EU. This has been realized peacefully in a reunified Germany and in a continent free of east-west tensions.Does this mean that, its national having been realized, Germany no longer has a dream? What I see today is an adjustment of aspirations and an evolution of realities. Globalization obviously plays a significant role here and certainly explains to some extent why Germany has in recent years been increasingly turning its attention to the east, to Russia, a major energy supplier, but also to the emerging markets, in particular China and India. This inevitably has an effect on the transatlantic relationship, which has lost some of its dynamism, or rather common destiny, since the imminent threat posed by the Cold War has evaporated. Yet the transatlantic connection remains particularly important and has, undoubtedly, been underestimated in some areas over the last few years in the wake of September nth. We are bound by our common destiny: Angela Merkel took the right step in launching a transatlantic economic partnership initiative with the US and Canada, with a view to reducing or eliminating the numerous non-tariff trade barriers hindering the expansion of our commercial and economic links, especially in science and technology and investment. …

The Race to Tip the Scales: Nuclear Paradox for the Eastern Bloc

Drawing widely on archive material and recently published documents from both German states on the 1980s, the article examines the impact on a divided Germany of the nuclear arms spiral, from the end of the 1970s up to the collapse of socialist states East Germany and the Soviet Union. Drawing on personal reflections and talks with witnesses, the author describes contradictory attitudes in the World Peace Council and its East German counterpart towards the new European nuclear disarmament movement around the European Nuclear Disarmament Campaign (END). The Cold War dictated rules and defined the scope for the fight to end the nuclear arms race and avert the constant threat of an atomic inferno. In the state-socialist system centred on the USSR, ideology determined the struggle for nuclear disarmament and, in turn, the foreign and security policy principles of the Soviet system. This objective and subjective framework imposed limits of its own, was influenced by the hegemonic objectives of the Soviet system, and contradictory in itself. Inevitably, therefore, East German attempts at containing damage after the double-track decision were restricted.

The Peace Movement - An Anti-Establishment Movement

Attempts to explain the emergence of the peace movement in the 1980s often point to factors like fear of nuclear weapons, Soviet manipulation of public opinion in the West and NATO's double-track decision in 1979. Among these, the author emphasizes the third factor. He argues that NATO's double track de cision made the threat of nuclear war seem nearer and more real, thus motivating people to involve themselves in the peace movement. The author also introduces a fourth factor, arguing that anti- establishment attitudes constitute the most important single impulse behind the emergence of the peace movement in the 1980s. The movement reflects a subculture which is permanently pitted against establishment norms. It is this environment of critical attitudes, rather than a quest for peace or an op position against nuclear weapons, which induces people to involve themselves in the peace movement. The author substantiates this thesis through a discussion of the social groups which tend to actively sup port the peace movement, the political preferences of the peace activists and their goals and methods. The peace movement is also shown in a historical perspective, which emphasizes its relationship with other popular movements of the post-war era.

Grassroots and Gewaltfreie Aktionen: A Study of Mass Mobilization Strategies in the West German Peace Movement

The West German peace movement of the eighties has been subject to many of the 'ebbs and flows' cha racteristic of protest movements of the late sixties and early seventies, with one important exception. In contrast to the more doctrinaire Marxist/socialist orientations evinced by those earlier movements, the mobilization against the deployment of Pershing II and cruise missiles has been grounded in sincere ef forts on the part of core activists to develop a German tradition of non-violence and civil disobedience. The author presents a catalogue of strategies employed by movement participants since the pro mulgation of the 1979 NATO double-track decision, divided into the subcategories of consciousness- raising or 'mobilization' activities, and direct action or 'escalation' activities. The extensive but by no means comprehensive list of possible protest actions seeks to maximize the opportunities for participa tion and to intensify one's personal identification with the movement at the grassroots level. Even though they have proved unsuccessful in blocking additional theater nuclear deployments, peace pro testers are judged to have contributed significantly to the 'democratization' of postwar German society.

The European Missiles Crisis: Nuclear Weapons and Security Policy

This book presents papers on the relationship of nuclear weapons to national security in Europe. Topics considered include the double-track decision, the intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) policy of the US, INF policy of the USSR, arms control, negotiations, a German perspective on INF and NATO discussion on military strategy, INF and political cohesion in NATO, the INF problem and the choices ahead, and the history and implications of the INF issue.