13
NOV
2023
The Bundeswehr is a "core instrument" of German security policy, according to the new defense policy guidelines. 1] Instead of diplomacy, the Federal Government therefore relies on "comprehensive military preparation already in peace". It raises the "claim of secured military ability to act" and declares "ability to war" the overrid "maxime of action". "At the center of all initiatives and measures" must be the goal of "iring the operational capability" of the German army "overall", says the paper; one needs a "fully equipped as well as permanently and always ready-to-use and combat Bundeswehr". The yardstick is "the willingness to fight with the claim to success in high-intensity combat". To this end, Berlin wants to modernize and expand the infrastructure of the Bundeswehr "accelerated", "increase production and storage capacities in the procurement of weapons systems, equipment, food, ammunition and operating materials" and build a "strong national and European armaments industry". The Ministry of Defense sees the "central challenge" in finding enough soldiers. In order to achieve the desired increase in military clout, the ministry announces a permanent increase in the military budget to "at least" (!) two percent of the national economic output.
In the course of capacity building, Berlin wants to further align the Bundeswehr with the so-called state and alliance defense, which it declares the "core mission" of the Bundeswehr in the new defense policy guidelines. The resulting requirements for the military are "structure-determining". The previous orientation of the Bundeswehr also to "worldwide operations for international crisis management" must be "reverse", although military interventions in Germany's "immediate security environment in Africa, the Middle East, the Arctic and the Indo-Pacific" are "still indispensable". The Ukraine war shows that the Federal Republic must "align its military potential with the scenario of the fight against an at least equal opponent"; this means Russia. With the new defense policy guidelines, Berlin explicitly places its security policy "focus" on security from the Russian Federation. The paper diagnoses an "immediate threat to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Germany." The "Euro-Atlantic area" must therefore be the "clear focus" of the "force bond" of the Bundeswehr. There will be a "consturized presence at the NATO external border in new quality". Stationing on the NATO eastern flank will, it continues, become the "norm" for the Bundeswehr in the future. The ability to transfer and supply "persistible forces" must be ensured. "Lighthouse project" is the planned permanent stationing of a German brigade in Lithuania. On the "dispute" with Russia, the basic document of German security policy states: "We not only want to win, but we must". "All other orders and tasks ... are subordinated" to the victory over Russia.
With the defense policy guidelines, the Ministry of Defense builds on the National Security Strategy published in the summer and, according to its own information, replaces the White Paper on Security Policy of 2016 and the conception of the Bundeswehr of 2018. In a next step, the ministry wants to concretely implement the basic strategic considerations of the defense policy guidelines into weapons, structure and personnel of the Bundeswehr. To this end, it announces an update of the Bundeswehr's capability profile from 2018 and a military strategy for the first time. 2] The defense policy guidelines represent an escalation, but by no means a turning point in German foreign and military policy.
Already in the defense policy guidelines of 1992, the Federal Republic claimed to enforce its "unhindered access to markets and raw materials all over the world" militarily if necessary. At that time, she declared intervention wars outside the alliance area the "focused task" [3] of the German army and committed herself to a corresponding development of military capabilities. Based on this, Berlin declared the Bundeswehr a "army in action" as a matter of course with the new defense policy guidelines from 2011. Based on the growing military strength, leading German politicians announced a new German claim to power under the slogan "New Power, New Responsibility" in October 2013. 4] When the eastern expansion of the EU resulted in a civil war in Ukraine in the following year, Berlin made a strategic direction decision. Since then, Germany's military capability building has been under the sign of an impending war with Russia. The White Paper of 2016 and the conception of the Bundeswehr of 2018 already included the increase in the importance of "national and alliance defense" against intervention wars outside the alliance area. The new defense policy guidelines now presented are only the latest step on the path already taken in 2014. However, the strategic focus on the fight against influence with Russia does not change the overarching goal publicly formulated in 2013 of being able to drive a military-based power policy in other theaters of war.
Since the shift of focus towards "national and alliance defense" in 2014, Berlin has been increasingly pursuing its armament within the framework of NATO requirements. However, with the "fulfillment of the NATO capability goals assigned to Germany" [5], which the defense policy guidelines invoke, the Bundeswehr also contributes to the "long-term, national capability development" and thus to the military strengthening of Germany. Accordingly, the Federal Republic confronts its allies in Europe and the USA with a new self-confidence in the paper: It registers "will to lead", sees itself in a "leadership responsibility" and claims a "shaping role" not only within the EU, but also for NATO. The Bundeswehr should "rasch" become one of the most powerful armed forces in Europe in order to become not only a "military partner in Europe", but even a "basic pillar of conventional defense" of Europe, according to the new defense policy guidelines. With the document, Berlin explains the aforementioned power policy course as the basis of its security policy, this in full awareness that this is "a particularly important threat" for Germany - "also militarily".
[1] Defence policy guidelines 2023. Bonn, November 2023.
[2] New defense policy guidelines demand war-capable Bundeswehr. bmvg.de 09.11.2023.
[3] Defense policy guidelines. Bonn, 26. November 1992.
[4] S. on the remeasurement of German world politics.
[5] Defence Policy Guidelines 2023. Bonn, November 2023.