Back in December, I posted a world map of the Federal Republic of Germany’s current worldwide deployments. A few days ago, I noticed that Germany was considering deploying 500 troops to the Congo. With my interest piqued and already knowing where the Bundeswehr is at the moment, I decided to visit the German Ministry of Defense’s website to investigate it’s past deployments. They are:
| Where: | Mission: | Dates: | Troops: |
| Cambodia | United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia | May 1992- Nov. 1993 | 150 Sanitation Soldiers |
| Rwanda | United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda | July 1994 – Dec. 1994 | 30 Air Force personel |
| Somalia | United Nations Operation in Somalia | Aug. 1993 – March 1994 | 1,700 soldiers, 600 Marines and 120 Air Force |
| Iraq | United Nations Special Commission | Aug. 1991 – Aug. 1996 | 30 soldiers in Baghdad, 7 Air Force in Bahrain |
| Former Yugoslavia | Implimentation Forces (IFOR) | 1995 | ??? |
| Yugoslavia (Kosovo) | ALLIED FORCE (NATO) | March 1999 – June 1999 | Air Force, 500 sorties flown |
| Kuweit | Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) | Feb.2002 – July 2003 | ~250 Soldiers trained in Chemical and Biological Warfare |
| Dem. Rep. Congo / Uganda | Operation Artemis | June 2003 – Sept. 2003 | 35 Soldiers for Air Transport, 60 for MedEvac), 2 in HQ in France |
| Macedonia | Operation CONCORDIA | March 2003 – Dec. 2003 | 40 soldiers |
Additionally, the German military has been helping with humanitarian catastrophes since the 60s in places like Morocco, Brazil, Nicaragua, China, Syria,Germany, Bosnia, Cambodia and many more (link in German).
A SysAdmin force waiting to be used indeed!
Speaking of Congo, it has a problem of many ‘child witches’. This is not as amusing as the Harry Potter phenomena.
Hopefully, the German Peacekeepers can help these children.
Before Germany could be considered either Leviathan or SysAdmin (in Barnett terminology), it would probably have to increase its military spending by almost 50%. NATO reckoned that Germany would spend only 1.4% of its GDP on the military in 2005. The alliance target is around 2% of national income.
Germany is the 37th biggest contributor of peacekeepers to UN missions, according to “UN statistics”:http://www.un.org/Depts/dpko/dpko/contributors/.
Not to mention the Germans assisted with both the tsunami relief effort and the Pakistani quake relief. I believe they also have a few personnel in Southern Sudan for the UN peacekeeping mission there.
While IJ is undoubtedly correct, we should at least give praise where praise is due – all the while encouraging more….
I wish they would deploy 150 Sanitation Soldiers to my house.
Dr. ARW: Absolutely. While they and the rest of Europe could and hopefully will do more, we do need to appreciate what they have done and realize that they are experienced in doing many of the jobs a SysAdmin force would do.
Chief: Miss. Chirol needs the same!
More on the lack of funding for global security. At the beginning of this month, the “Munich Conference on Security Policy”:http://www.securityconference.de/ took place. This annual get-together is called the “Davos” of security policy. Representatives from more than 40 countries discuss in depth the development of transatlantic relations as well as European and global security.
“A key concern of Nato’s S-G”:http://www.securityconference.de/konferenzen/rede.php?menu_2006=&menu_konferenzen=&sprache=en&id=169& is who’ll pay for global security:
“modernizing the way we pay for things in NATO is critical, because it will make it easier to do what we need to do: project stability. Right now, participation in the NRF [Nato Response Force] is something like a reverse lottery: if your numbers come up, you actually lose money. If the NRF deploys while you happen to be in the rotation, you pay the full costs of the deployment of your forces. This can be a disincentive to countries to commit to participation in the NRF. And that is something that the alliance can’t afford. That is why we need more solidarity in the way we pay for our operations. We need to share the costs more fairly. When Turkey had to ship some helicopters to Afghanistan, Luxembourg paid for their transport. That was solidarity. In the case of the NRF, I believe we should aim for the common funding of at least the initial deployment.”
Is democracy preventing Germany from taking part part in alliance peace-building missions? The top NATO commander in Europe, General James Jones, was “interviewed”:http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,399472-2,00.html recently by Germany’s ‘Der Spiegel’:
*SPIEGEL:* The Germans have declined to participate in the Iraq war and they are only engaged in training Iraqi officers outside of the country. They will also not join the risky expansion of peacekeeping forces in southern Afghanistan. Are you disappointed?
*Jones:* I’ve learned in the three years I’ve been in this job that one has to be realistic. NATO is an alliance that works by consensus, *but each nation can put its own application of what it wishes to do within that consensus*. In Iraq we have a situation where barely half of the allies decided to put troops on the ground — but they all voted for a mission. So, in their own way, they’re doing what they can. I don’t have negative feelings about anybody in the alliance on that score.
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