Post-Unification German Foreign Policy

The change in German foreign policy since reunification has been nothing less than profound. Up until the end of the Cold War, Germany had essentially almost no security policy, a substantial part of any country’s foreign policy. In terms of its national security and military, Germany was marked by an extremely small amount of autonomy. During the Cold War of course, Germany was completely protected by the United States as West Germany was the front line. The Soviets overrunning West Berlin was long believed to be what would kick off the next world war.

In 1955, ten years after the second world war, the Bundeswehr or Federal Defense Army (my translation) was created. However, it was not a normal military so to speak. There were no command and control structures which therefore prevented any sort of central coordination and planning thereby precluding Germany from planning any sort of war. It was also created as a Bündnisarmee or Alliance Army meaning that all of its troops were under full NATO command, even in peace time. Germany’s military was, so to say, not for Germany at all, but rather for NATO.

NATO quickly became the focal point of German foreign and security policy from 1955 until around 1991. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and therewith the threat of a third world war, or nuclear war, NATO’s role became very different thereby sending German politics in a new direction. So-called “out of area” operations, which previously had been of secondary importance, now came to the forefront of NATO debate.

Germany, like Japan, has a very different constitution than most other states. Germany, by law, cannot start an war of aggression or Angriffskrieg. German law incorporates international law to a very large degree. There was also considerable debate about whether German law allowed Germany to send troops under the umbrella of a NATO operation when it’s national security was not directly involved. NATO reached a consensus by itself (i.e. not related to Germany) that it would engage in such non-defense operations only with a UN mandate which therefore solved the question for Germany. German foreign policy has often been referred to as “checkbook-diplomacy” in the past because it often paid for the costs of operations and sometimes provided logistical support such as during the Gulf War. Here is a list of operations since 1987.

Table 1: German participation in “out of area” operations.

As one can plainly see, a lot has changed. There was for example no UN mandate for bombing Serbia during the Kosovo conflict, however Germany participated. The Afghanistan campaign was different because Article 5 was invoked (an attack on any member is an attack on all).

The interesting thing however, is why it has changed. The demise of the USSR is the first thing most people would point to, and rightly so. However, international and socetial norms have changed as well. But that’s of course the subject of an entirely different article, but on sociology. Germans are slowly beginning to realize, largely in response to the Iraq war, that if they want to have more say in the world, then they need to participate more in its management.

As one can plainly see, though Germany isn’t as willing to participate in military operations as the US would like, they have made considerable progress over the past decade towards more participation and taking on a greater responsibility. While many critics have assailed Germany for pacifism or being a bad ally, progress has been steady and cannot be rushed. Germany has only had an independent foreign and security policy for a decade, they still aren’t completely ready to ride without their training wheels. With the right US foreign policy, we can co-opt them into junior partners who’d be willing to do and good at peacekeeping operations. Germany is one big Sysadmin force waiting to be used. We need only to adopt policies based on cooperation not confrontation.