Germany on the Way to Rearmament: Transformation of Security Policy within the Framework of Strategic Culture

Abstract

The characterization of Germany’s evolving security and defense policy remains one of the most topical and debated issues in modern European security studies. “Zeitenwende” marked a new phase in Germany’s security policy, leading to a fullscale process of doctrinal reorientation. It was implemented through a series of official documents, including the National Security Strategy and the Military Strategy, which were released for the first time in Germany. These papers posited the country’s commitment to enhancing its defense capabilities and redefining its role within the Euro-Atlantic security architecture. The key research question is whether increasing military capabilities are representative of (re-)militarization or they represent defensive adaptation shaped by a historically embedded strategic culture.

The author devises an alternative explanation basing on the concept of strategic culture, statistical data on German defense expenditure, and the provisions of the main official documents. According to it, the transformation of German security policy can be defined as a transitional normalization, which presumes advance of military capabilities with the framework of core values of German strategic culture, e.g., multilateralism, alliance loyalty, and a rule-based approach to security. Historically shaped strategic culture is regarded as a normative and conceptual context of current changes that contrasts with (re-)militarization. The research provides assessments to the probability and prospects of Germany taking the leading role as a European conventional military power within NATO. The ongoing rearmament measures and their implications are interpreted as longoverdue measures to address deep-seated defense deficiencies that had previously played a distinctly secondary role in the German political agenda.