The Bundeswehr’s Worldwide Missions

Although numerically small, the German military, or Bundeswehr participates in considerably more operations than most people are aware of. This is not to say that they could not or should not participate in more, but rather to illustrate the extent of their current involvement in humanitarian affairs and anti-terrorism operations. I’ve discussed where they have been in the past in previous posts, this is where they are today:

The map is taken from the German Ministry of Defense’s website, translated by me as well as modified to include troop strength. More information on these missions can be found there, however, only in German.

Though the numbers may seem small to Americans or Brits, one mustn’t forget the relatively small size of Germany’s armed forces and that the wide range of their missions is already somewhat controversial as Germans tend to see their military as purely defensive and not for overseas use. Kosovo, for example, in which the Germans not only participated, but in which the Luftwaffe actively dropped bombs, was a tremendous step and the first time since 1945 that German troops fought abroad. The Bundeswehr is only 250,000 men strong, 50,000 of which are conscripts who’ll serve only their mandatory 9 months before leaving and although it is one of the most technologicaly advanced militaries in the world, Germany spends a pathetic 1,2% of its GDP on it