German Security Policy Research Articles

The Zeitenwende, State Traditions, and the Developmental Imperative in German Energy Policy

Abstract This article argues that contemporary German environmental and energy policy has been shaped by the dominance of the Rechtsstaat—or “Legal State”—tradition. Although German authorities have articulated laudable climate goals and related hopes for greater energy independence—most recently in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's 2022 declaration of a Zeitenwende in German security and energy policy—the weakness of the developmental imperative, coupled with the power of interests central to the country's export-led growth model, have undermined the investments required for achieving these aims.

«Смена эпох» в политике безопасности и обороны ФРГ

The current study examines transformation of German security and defense policy after the speech of Chancellor O. Scholz in Bundestag on February 27, 2022, announcing the “Change of Epochs” – a new era in German foreign and defense policy. Germany’s security and defense policy was characterized by stability and predictability for a long time and has currently reached the stage of evolutionary transition. It is embodied in the shift in the perception of goals and objectives of Bundeswehr and in the release of the first National security strategy. “Integrated security” is the structuring concept of National security strategy, which encompasses internal and external defense and covers a wide range of military and non-military challenges, risks, dangers, and threats, connected with economy, environment, healthcare, industry, supply chains, human rights, etc. Bureaucratic stumbling blocks and lack of consensus between ministries influenced the content of the strategy, thus the document represents predominately the analysis of current situation in international affairs, rather than prospects for the security and defense policy. The strategy lacks systematization and prioritization of defensive goals and objectives, hence the deadlines for these goals seem to be blurred. Moreover, there is still no understanding about the ministry or the office, which will be responsible for the implementation of the propositions introduced in the strategy. Even with such ambiguity and contradictions in the security and defense policy, the “Zeitenwende” (“Change of Epochs”) and the new National security strategy illustrate the attempt of Germany to set its status quo in the rapid changes and shifts in the security sphere, on both regional and global level.

Role-theoretic discourse analysis of German security policy: a case of German parliamentary debate on the mission in Afghanistan.

This article combines linguistic discourse analysis with role theory to create a role-theoretic discourse analysis framework for German security policy. To illustrate this, we employ topos analysis on 30 plenary minutes of parliamentary debates regarding the International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan, conducted by German Members of Parliament between 2001 and 2014. We interpret their perception of Germany's roles in light of key behavioral norms related to German security policy. The parliamentary discourse, shaped by topoi, sets the stage for decisions on German military operations abroad. The use of topoi is influenced by dominant thought patterns, particularly the perspective on Germany's role in security policy held by the political elite. Political decisions, in turn, reflect behavioral preferences guided by these viewpoints. Our research reveals how changes in German security policy are mirrored in the discourse. This discourse is structured around five categories of topoi for legitimizing or delegitimizing military operations abroad: necessity, obligation, self-interest, capability and preparedness, and solution. An evaluation of the use of topoi through the lens of role theory indicates that perceptions of Germany's role have evolved over time, encompassing roles such as a "civilian power," a "normal state," and an "agenda-setting role" in sync with its foreign military engagements.

NEW APPROACHES TO THE SECURITY OF GERMANY’S ENERGY SECTOR UNDER CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES

The article examines current views of German leadership on ensuring security of energy sector amid the deteriorating political and economic situation in Europe. The issues of reliable and available energy supply became particularly relevant for Germany in 2022. The problem of energy security came to the forefront of the agenda due to the country’s high dependence on imports of fossil energy resources from Russia. The German government took measures aimed at solving this issue including through strengthening control over energy infrastructure. Diversification of energy consumption implied the creation of new infrastructure facilities, securing which has become of great importance for the country’s economy. Special attention is given to the response of German authorities to the explosions on the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. This terrorist attack has drawn Berlin’s attention to the problem of protecting energy infrastructure, including at sea. The author analyzes Berlin’s positions in the field of energy sector security, identifies the key directions of German energy policy. The article concludes that the existing approaches of the German authorities to the protection of infrastructure facilities in energy sector require rethinking. These conclusions are important for understanding German security policy. They can be reflected in new official strategic planning documents.

Geopolitics of Technological Futures: Warfare Technologies and Future Battlefields in German Security Debates

ABSTRACT Germany’s role in global geopolitics is being renegotiated within current debates about future security architecture, weapons technology capabilities, and the spatiality of future battlefields. This paper introduces a critical geopolitics of technological futures approach and analyses weapons technology discourses through poststructuralist discourse theory and scholarship on technological expectations. It investigates German security policy documents’ construction of future threat scenarios, technological visions, battlefields, and the material-technological consequences associated with these futures. It identifies how the geopolitical scenario of ‘Westlessness’ discursively shifted after Russia’s war in Ukraine. It also considers the socio-technical imagination of ‘hyperwar’, which justifies the development of artificial intelligence-based weapons technologies. Such socio-technical imaginations construct desirable weapons and influence geopolitical leitmotifs. In turn, geopolitical imaginaries affect expectations of future weapons technologies and legitimate the acquisition of specific technologies. Therefore, this paper offers an approach to examining geopolitical power-knowledge constructions in relation to (new) technologies of killing.

К вопросу становления политики безопасности ФРГ

The article examines the issue of the formation of Germany's security policy after the Second World War. The German security policy at the present time was formed in the conditions of the Cold War. The German entry into the system of military-political alliances of the West was due to the country's subordinate position in relation to the Western occupying powers. Initially, there were two vectors in security policy: the European and the transatlantic, linked to the United States and NATO. The first government of the Federal Republic of Germany, led by Konrad Adenauer, tried to take into account both the European and transatlantic vectors. Moreover, this trend continued later. As a result, the military component of European integration did not find the proper development and wasn't regarded as a significant competitor for NATO. Furthermore, the history and a highly developed pacifist movement leave a significant imprint on the German security policy. The pacifist movement began in Germany in the 1950s in response to the government's decision to remilitarize. The ideology of pacifism in the form of rejection of the growth of the Bundeswehr, military spending, the participation of the German contingent in NATO military operations - all this remained as a part of the German socio-political consciousness. Also, the formation of security policy in Germany is historically the result of a broad intra-social consensus. The result of this compromise is in some way the “White Paper” or “White Paper of the Bundeswehr”, a conceptual document on threats to national security and plans for the development of the Bundeswehr for the coming years, developed by the Ministry of Defense in 1969 with extensive discussion by parliament and the public.

Verteidigungsausgaben in Deutschland

With the overall risk of military conflict and the concomitant threats to political and economic sovereignty showing no sign of letting up, Germany's armed forces need to be correspondingly manned and equipped. Defence is a key public good that can equally be justified economically. The conflict potential presented by authoritarian governments in and near Europe poses new challenges to which German security policy must respond with appropriate budgets. So far, new demands on the armed forces in an international context have not led to a noticeable increase in German defence spending, which has, on the contrary, fallen significantly since the end of the Cold War. Since the Iron Curtain fell, Germany has achieved much higher and more lasting savings than either France or the United Kingdom and has thus enjoyed by far the greatest peace dividend. Moreover, in the next few years, Germany is likely to continue to miss the NATO target for defence expenditure of 2 per cent of gross domestic product by a wide margin. If it were to be met, Germany's defence budget for the period between 2021 and 2024 would have to be boosted by an overall 86 billion euros.

German foreign and security policy after Merkel

Angela Merkel’s Germany has frustrated its international partners through its reluctance to match the shifting realities of Europe’s evolving security environment with meaningful changes in German foreign and security policy. Questions about Merkel’s remaining time in office and the identity of her successor means that the likely outlook and international influence of a post-Merkel Germany remains unclear.

The struggle of a Kantian power in a Lockean world – German leadership in security and defence policy

ABSTRACTGerman security and defence policy has undergone substantial transformation. This transformation requires an unprecedented level of political leadership, suggesting that Germany needs to solve the dilemma of how to supply leadership to increasingly demanding partners. What are the conditions under which German leadership can unfold in security and defence policy? To what degree do German role-conceptions of international agency and role-expectations of German leadership coincide? What kind of leadership outputs are produced? This study offers a comprehensive analysis of German security and defence policy in terms of supply (role conceptions) and demand (role expectations). We outline three leadership role conceptions present in the German strategic debate, which we then assess in the context of the Wendtian theory of cultures of anarchy. We then analyse Berlin's leadership in terms of outputs via the case study on Anchor Army and the Framework Nations Concept. We conclude that while Germany has tried to match leadership role expectations both rhetorically and in action, Berlin's leadership inputs have so far been insufficient. This has led to an imbalance in terms of role conceptions and expectations hampering effective German leadership in security and defence policy.

Изменения в оборонной политике ФРГ в свете трансформации Европейского союза и НАТО

The author studies the changes in the German secu-rity policy that have taken place over the past three years. Special attention is paid to the fact that these processes are affected by the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU and the victory of D. Trump in the United States presidential election. The re-search considers the German approaches to strengthening its influence in the EU and NATO. The author concludes that Germany makes successive efforts to overcome the military restrictions im-posed since the Second World War by seeking membership in major international or-ganizations. Brexit and election of Trump facilitate such a policy. Deeper military integration is benefi-cial to Germany as it provides an opportunity to reinforce its army and avoid undesirable military missions by deploying troops of other EU countries without loss of influence and reputa-tion. The progress of this policy will be assessed over the next few years.

The Challenge of Creating an Adaptive Bundeswehr

This article examines the capacity of the German Army to establish key conditions for successful tactical- and operational-level adaptation, innovation and emulation. In doing so, it explores the factors which stimulate and block adaptation, innovation and emulation. The article points to the need for accounts of German foreign, defence and security policy to pay greater attention to the intra-organisational barriers to effective policy implementation. Finally, it highlights avenues for future empirical and theoretical research on military change, especially the need for greater understanding of the role of learning processes in linking military adaptation in the field to wider organisational learning.

The Process of Strengthening by Germany Its Military-Political Presence in the World: the Concept of Regional Circles

The article tries to conceptualize the process of creation by Germany its military-political presence in the world arena. The author explores this process based on the idea of “regional circles”. The key principle of it is the step-by-step spread of influence over the nearest regions and only after it over far ones. In this regard, the example of Germany is the most interesting. During the period of “first editions” of the Cold war Germany was led by senior partners in the military-political sphere. In the 1990s Germany had been going to the role of regional power, and from the beginning of the 21st century it has been going to the role of global actor. The statues of regional power was a result of playing a role of constructor of Post-Yugoslavian political landscape and parallel keeping of strong military-political positions in Eastern European countries in the circumstances when regional states was entering NATO and the EU. During the begging of the 21st century Germany tries to create strong military-political positions in the Central Asia (since the beginning of the 2000s), Middle East (since the middle of the decade) and Sahel regions (since beginning of the 2010s). The article also explores the question of exceptions from the concept of “regional circles” in German security policy and the reasons of them. The paper also investigates the problem of zigzag character of strengthening and the loss of German military-political positions on the regional levels first of all since the middle 2010s. The author concludes about the reasons of this dynamics.

Russia in the context of German security policy

The goal of the present paper is to identify the basic approach to Russia in the German security policy. The author focuses on the impact of the Ukrainian crisis on the FRG security policy. The events and processes are examined from the point of basic national security interests of current Germany. Main sources are conceptual documents and statements of leading politicians. Particular decisions of the German government are also analyzed. The author comes to a conclusion that Russia is considered in Germany primarily as a security threat; a “strategy of double-track decisions” is implemented, combining containment and dialog. It means a partial recovery to NATO concepts from the late period of the Cold War. German politician attach greater importance to the European security issues again. Germany is strengthening its military capabilities and reinforcing the development of the defense and security structures of the EU and NATO. Ukrainian crisis strongly influenced the German security policy along with other long-term factors, such as the need for a greater German role in world politics and closer EU security and defense integration.

German Unification as a Catalyst for Change: Linking Political Transformation at the Domestic and International Levels

Fundamental social, political and economic changes that have taken hold in the Federal Republic since 1990 have undermined the idea of a single master narrative setting the course for unification. This special issue links processes of national transformation to a wide array of domestic, supranational and global developments, highlighting the long-term impact of unification on policy domains often neglected during earlier stages of analysis. At issue are the dynamics reshaping the political party system, migration and asylum reforms, the reconfiguration of gender roles, along with new responsibilities and constraints affecting German foreign and security policy. We outline the four key questions addressed by each contributor regarding: 1) the causes, effects and the direction of change in each sector; 2) the balance between internal and external, as well as between direct and indirect forces for change; 3) questions of timing and sequence; and 4) the somewhat surprising impact of eastern practices in reconfiguring long-established structures and norms rooted in the western states.

Niemcy w polityce globalnej (Biała Księga)

The aim of this article is to analyse the global and European foreign, security and defence policies of the Federal Republic of Germany and their implications for the broad international environment of Germany. Special attention is paid to the issues of Germany’s emancipation in the international order after the end of the East-West conflict, when it became clear that the regional conflicts and their transnational impact gained a new and multidimensional character for the German security policy. Given this evolution of the international system, Germany has gradually changed its former foreign and security policies. The state currently intends to take greater responsibility for international politics, which translates into a simultaneous increase in its political and economic power in the international arena. This new global role of the Federal Republic of Germany is manifested by the so-called White Paper on German Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr approved on 13 July 2016. This document presents primarily the hierarchy of threats in today’s world, their definitions and attempts to neutralize them in compliance with German interests. Instruments to ensure a smooth achievement of this goal include the modernization of the German armed forces, the creation of intervention troops and their participation in multinational military operations conducted by NATO and the European Union.

Lessons of the Hindu Kush: the mission of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan and its impact on German security policy

Lessons of the Hindu Kush: the mission of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan and its impact on German security policy

Lessons Learned? German Security Policy and the War in Afghanistan

The mission in Afghanistan revealed fundamental shortcomings, inconsistencies and contradictions of core elements of German security policy. In an effort to contribute to the debate about the factors that account for the idiosyncrasies of German security policy, the purpose of this study is to assess how far Germany learned lessons from its policy failures in Afghanistan. The study introduces a typology of learning, which is mainly based on the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF); delineates the German security policy belief system; and explores two prominent cases of policy failure: the deployment of the Bundeswehr and leadership of the international police training mission. Utilising different sources of data, the study confirms assumptions of the ACF about the stability of core beliefs and shows that the lack of precise policy objectives was a significant barrier to learning. Instead of clarifying Germany's strategic viewpoint, Afghanistan has further enhanced its disorientation in security policy.

Niemiecki słoń w składzie libijskiej porcelany. Implikacje postawy wobec wydarzeń w Libii w 2011 r. dla polityki zagranicznej i bezpieczeństwa RFN

This paper strives to explain what implications for German foreign and security policy - its principles, doctrines and long-time trends - Berlin’s reaction to the Libyan crisis in 2011 could have. The author discusses Germany’s dilemma regarding the use of its army on foreign missions, as well as the international negotiations about the no-fly zone over Libya. This will help analyze two possible explanations of the German position on Libya. One possible justification is that this position has its origins in the short-term domestic interests of the ruling parties. Another explanation is that Berlin’s stance is one of the elements of a broader change in German foreign and security policy. It is a part of a trend to emancipate itself from ideological restraints and to put more emphasis on economic interests.

The UK, the EU and European Security: A German Perspective

While German commentators and politicians are primarily concerned with the economic impact of a possible ‘Brexit’ and the loss of a partner in EU economic negotiations, David Cameron's speech has also raised questions about the future of European security. For some in Berlin, the CSDP is unworkable without British participation; for others, the removal of the British veto would enable progress on CSDP institutions, long desired by Berlin. Here, Kempin and Mawdsley explore the apparent contradictions in German security policy, and the (possibly unwelcome) opportunities a Brexit might open up for Germany in relation to the CSDP.

Nuclear Disarmament: Should America Lead?

Journal Article Nuclear Disarmament: Should America Lead? Get access Regina Karp Regina Karp REGINA KARP is an associate professor of political science and the director of the interdisciplinary Graduate Program in International Studies (GPIS) at Old Dominion University. She has published books and articles on international security including works on German security policy and the transformation of war. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 127, Issue 1, Spring 2012, Pages 47–71, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-165X.2012.tb00720.x Published: 15 February 2013