The Bundeswehr after unification

Dalvi, Sameera (1999) The Bundeswehr after unification. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Abstract

When the Bundeswehr (the German Armed Forces) was founded in 1955, its prime purpose was to contribute within the parameters of the North Atlantic Alliance, to the defence of the Western democracies against the threat from the Warsaw pact nations. During the Cold War period, the Bundeswehr was oriented towards this single goal. However, with the end of East-West antagonism, Germany like most of its NATO counterparts, is adapting the size, structure, organisation and equipment and training of its armed forces to the new strategic landscape in Europe and beyond. The Federal Republic's effort to reorient the Bundeswehr from being a Cold War defence force, to one with a role and status on par with other Western powers, have been hindered by problems by unifying two bitterly antagonistic states and by the apprehensions felt by many Europeans of a resurgent Germany.

This thesis examines the post-Cold War role of the Bundeswehr in the context of German unification and argues that this role is the product of two factors: the united Germany's strategic culture and the institutionalisation of the norms of military humanitarianism in German defence policy. This normative approach takes issue with the conventions of the realism to assert that norms, as standards of behaviour defined in terms of rights and obligations, have a legitimising function. While not disregarding the technical assumptions involved in shaping defence policy, the author argues that a normative approach to Bundeswehr involvement in out-of-area operations arises and has its content shaped by normative values supporting humanitarian intervention.

The thesis also highlights the main issues concerning the organisation of the Bundeswehr. It traces the efforts of the German defence planners to equip the Bundeswehr with the necessary resources to meet its post-Cold War obligations. The author contends that defence planning is a highly controversial issue in the Federal Republic and that the planners prime concern is to make certain that the Bundeswehr can be deployed in a variety of military operations in the twenty-first century.

The thesis concludes that German strategists are determined to create a new post-Cold War strategic culture as well as practice the norms of military humanitarianism to the best of their ability. They are intent on restructuring the Bundeswehr so that it becomes more than a technical relief organisation in battledress.

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