Kryzys Bundeswehry po zjednoczeniu Niemiec

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (324) ◽  
pp. 152-165
Author(s):  
Jan Rydel
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
German Society ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
German Army ◽  
Defence Spending ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Marine Vessels ◽  
The Military

The Bundeswehr, the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany, which was one of the strongestarmies in NATO during the Cold War, is currently in serious crisis. After the reunification of Germany, thenumber of soldiers was quickly reduced and the defence spending dropped to 1.2 percent of the GDP. In2004, the doctrine of using the Bundeswehr changed too. It was concluded that there was no risk of anattack on the German territory, so general conscription was abandoned and the supplies of weapons andammunition needed for mobilization were liquidated. The army was to specialise in peace and stabilisationmissions in endangered areas of the world. However, at present, Germany has far fewer soldiers on missionsthan, for example, France and Great Britain, and it consistently refrains from joining missions during which itis likely to participate in real combat operations. At present, the German army does not have a single brigadecapable of taking part in a combat, and a small number of Luftwaffe airplanes and helicopters are technicallysound, including Marine vessels. The situation of the Bundeswehr is complicated by the widespread pacifismin German society and the resulting lack of trust in, and aversion to the military.

Italy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Coticchia
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
First Century ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War

Since the end of the bipolar era, Italy has regularly undertaken military interventions around the world, with an average of 8,000 units employed abroad in the twenty-first century. Moreover, Italy is one of the principal contributors to the UN operations. The end of the cold war represented a turning point for Italian defence, allowing for greater military dynamism. Several reforms have been approved, while public opinion changed its view regarding the armed forces. This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive perspective of the process of transformation that occurred in post-cold-war Italian defence, looking at the evolution of national strategies, military doctrines, and the structure of forces. After a brief literature review, the study highlights the process of transformation of Italian defeshnce policy since 1989. Through primary and secondary sources, the chapter illustrates the main changes that occurred, the never-ending cold-war legacies, and key challenges.

The Soviet Factor in the US-China Military-Technical Cooperation during the Cold War

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 12-47
Author(s):  
Yinan Li
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Technical Cooperation ◽  
Arms Sales ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

The development of the PRC’s armed forces included three phases when their modernization was carried out through an active introduction of foreign weapons and technologies. The first and the last of these phases (from 1949 to 1961, and from 1992 till present) received wide attention in both Chinese and Western academic literature, whereas the second one — from 1978 to 1989 —when the PRC actively purchased weapons and technologies from the Western countries remains somewhat understudied. This paper is intended to partially fill this gap. The author examines the logic of the military-technical cooperation between the PRC and the United States in the context of complex interactions within the United States — the USSR — China strategic triangle in the last years of the Cold War. The first section covers early contacts between the PRC and the United States in the security field — from the visit of R. Nixon to China till the inauguration of R. Reagan. The author shows that during this period Washington clearly subordinated the US-Chinese cooperation to the development of the US-Soviet relations out of fear to damage the fragile process of detente. The second section focuses on the evolution of the R. Reagan administration’s approaches regarding arms sales to China in the context of a new round of the Cold War. The Soviet factor significantly influenced the development of the US-Chinese military-technical cooperation during that period, which for both parties acquired not only practical, but, most importantly, political importance. It was their mutual desire to undermine strategic positions of the USSR that allowed these two countries to overcome successfully tensions over the US arms sales to Taiwan. However, this dependence of the US-China military-technical cooperation on the Soviet factor had its downside. As the third section shows, with the Soviet threat fading away, the main incentives for the military-technical cooperation between the PRC and the United States also disappeared. As a result, after the Tiananmen Square protests, this cooperation completely ceased. Thus, the author concludes that the US arms sales to China from the very beginning were conditioned by the dynamics of the Soviet-American relations and Beijing’s willingness to play an active role in the policy of containment. In that regard, the very fact of the US arms sales to China was more important than its practical effect, i.e. this cooperation was of political nature, rather than military one.

Turkey: The Rise and Fall of the Influence of the Military in Politics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Acar Kutay
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Turkish Republic ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

The continued influence of the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) on politics characterized the political history of the Turkish Republic, until such influence was first bridled and then ultimately broken by the Justice and Development Party governments during the 2000s. When the new regime was established in 1923, the military identified itself with its founding ideology, namely Kemalism, which was built on the ideas of modernism, secularism, and nationalism. Because the TAF assumed the roles of guardian of the regime and vanguard of modernization, any threat to the foundational values and norms of the republican regime was considered by the military as a threat to the constitutional order and national security. As a self-authorized guardian of the regime and its values, the TAF characterized itself as a non-partisan institution. The military appealed to such identity to justify the superiority of the moral and epistemological foundations of their understanding of politics compared with that of the elected politicians. The military invoked such superiority not only to intervene in politics and take power (1960, 1971, 1980, 1997, and 2007). They also used such identity to monitor and control political processes by means of the National Security Council (established after the 1960 military intervention) and by more informal means such as mobilizing the public against the elected government’s policy choices. In the context of the Cold War, domestic turmoil and lasting political polarization helped legitimate the military’s control over security issues until the 1980s. After the end of the Cold War, two threats to national security drew the TAF into politics: the rising power of Islamic movements and the separatist terrorism of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which posed threats to the constitutional order. Turkey’s EU membership bid is one of the most important aspects that bridled the influence of the TAF on politics. Whereas the democratic oversight of the military and security sector constituted a significant dimension of the EU reforms, events that took place around the nomination of the Justice and Development Party’s candidate, Abdullah Gül, for the presidency created a rupture in the role and influence of the military on politics. Two juristic cases against members of the TAF in 2008 and 2010 made a massive impact on the power of the military, before the ultimate supremacy of the political sphere was established after the coup attempt organized by the Gülenist officers who infiltrated the TAF during the 2000s.

scholarly journals THE GERMAN ARMED FORCES MOUNTAIN TROOPS

2016 ◽  
pp. 129-140
Author(s):  
Andreas Hauptmann Kaiser
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Short Overview ◽  
German Army ◽  
German Armed Forces ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
The Cold War

V članku je predstavljen kratek zgodovinski pregled gorskih enot nemških oboroženih sil. Opisan je njihov razvoj od začetkov, ko so delovale kot specializirane enote pehote, prek obdobja obeh vojn in hladne vojne do današnjega položaja v kompleksnem in večdimenzionalnem bojevanju. Na kratko so predstavljene tudi posebne kompetence pripadnikov teh enot, v nadaljevanju pa avtor predstavi še trenutno opremo in strukturo gorskih enot ter njihove sedanje zmogljivosti. Članek ponuja tudi kratek pregled sodelovanja enot in njihovih pripadnikov na mednarodnih misijah, na katerih nemške oborožene sile sodelujejo. Na koncu je predstavljena vaja brigadne ravni Edelweiss 2015 kot primer izzivov, s katerimi se srečujejo nemška kopenska vojska in njene gorske enote v okolju kompleksnega in večdimenzionalnega bojevanja. The article provides a short historical overview about the German Armed Forces Mountain Troops. It describes the development from its beginnings as specialized infantry through two World Wars and the cold war era until today’s situation in a complex and multidimensional warfighting environment. In addition, a short view into some specific qualifications of the Mountain Troops is given. Furthermore, it highlights the current equipment and structure to show the present capability profile of the German Armed Forces Mountain Troops. Moreover, the article gives a short overview of the participation of units and soldiers in international missions, the German military was and is involved in. Finally, the Brigade Battle Exercise EDELWEISS2015 is presented as an illustration of the challenges the German Army and its Mountain Forces have to face in the afore mentioned complex and multidimensional warfighting environment.

scholarly journals The key directions of German-Dutch and German-French cooperation in defence strengthening

2020 ◽  
pp. 203-225
Author(s):  
Philipp Trunov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Event Analysis ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Reaction Forces ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Deep Integration ◽  
The Military

Since the former Cold War, the Federal Republic of Germany has had the closest, the most full-scale and different in the spectrum of tracks relations in the sphere of common strengthening of the defence capabilities with the continental Western European countries. First, these ones are France and the Netherlands. The article tries to explore German relations with these two countries in the military sphere during the modern period. The key research methods are event-analysis and comparative analysis. The paper covers the experience of the creation of the first bilateral and multilateral military groups of NATO member states` armed forces which consist of staffs and military forces of the mixed troop system. The article notes that first military groups of this kind were created on the territory of the united Germany and examines the reasons of this tendency. Special attention is paid to the development of German-Dutch Corpspotential. This one, the 1 st tank division and the division of rapid reaction forces (each of those divisions has one Dutch brigade) of the Bundeswehr are explored as military mechanisms of deep integration between the two countries. The article also identifies the features of military-technical German-Dutch cooperation, including their common efforts in the frames of Permanent Structured Cooperation platform. The article compares the scales and quality of German-Dutch and German-French cooperation. In this regard the paper rises the question about real military importance of German-French brigade and cooperation between two countries in military-technical field, including the creation of robotized technics. The paper shows the limits of German-French cooperation potential until the early 2020's.

Conscientious Objection and the State

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 666-687
Author(s):  
Adi Livny
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Federal Republic ◽  
Social Roles ◽  
Conscientious Objection ◽  
The State ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

The abundant writing on conscientious objection (CO) had kept one significant actor rather neglected—the state. Relatively unexplored is the question of how democracies shape their policies toward CO. This article wishes to address this gap, focusing in particular on states that maintain conscription, and examining what accounts for their different responses to CO. Based on the Israeli case study, while drawing on comparative insights from The Federal Republic of Germany and Switzerland during the Cold War, I argue that states’ treatment of CO depends primarily on the military’s status and the type of roles assigned to conscription. States in which these roles are mainly functional, and the military does not enjoy, accordingly, a high symbolic status will be more inclined to formally recognize CO than states in which the military fulfills civilian–social roles and enjoys a high symbolic status. Lack of recognition, however, does not necessarily imply harshness; states of the latter sort might nonetheless accommodate CO through unofficial means. Thus, when discussing the policy towards CO a distinction is ought to be made between accommodation and recognition.

Armed Forces as a Geopolitics Instrument from a Historical and Contemporary Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (34) ◽  
pp. 145-156
Author(s):  
Mateusz Ziętarski
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
World War ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Second World ◽  
Contemporary Context

Geography can restrain states, or create possibilities to the political activity that states carry out. Following Carl von Clausewitz, one can point to the relation between politics and war. The famous Prussian general claimed that war is an extension of politics made by means of the armed forces. Questions should therefore be posed how geography restrains or stregthens the activity of the armed forces, and how geopolitics determines the functioning of the military. The following article shows the abovementioned imperative in the historical as well as contemporary context. The aim of the study is to place the armed forces in the geopolitical framework and to show the cause-and-effect relationship between the operations of the armed forces and geopolitics. The research is carried out on the time axis: the time analysis is divided into the period of the Second World War, the Cold War and the post-Cold War period.

scholarly journals Decentering the Cold War in Southern Africa: The Portuguese Policy of Decolonization and Détente in Angola and Mozambique (1974–1984)

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-51
Author(s):  
Bruno C. Reis
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military ◽  
The Impact

Contrary to the expectations of many, the break between Portugal and its former colonies in southern Africa was far from complete after decolonization. This article points to three major reasons. First, the impact on relations with Angola and Mozambique of the fragmentation of Portuguese state power and tense polarization in the Portuguese polity after the military coup of 24 April 1974 has been overstated and was far from entirely negative. Second, diplomatic relations were normalized between Portugal, Angola, and Mozambique during the Cold War in a way that has significant parallels with West Germany's Ostpolitik. Portugal's Südpolitik saw a cultural identity worth preserving despite geopolitical divisions and pushed for better relations and deepened ties with these states to help move them away from strict alignment with the Soviet bloc. Third, officers of the Armed Forces Movement that carried out the April 1974 coup exercised a fundamental, positive influence in Portuguese policies toward Angola and Mozambique during decolonization and for years afterward.

scholarly journals Os Militares e a Guerra Fria no Brasil

Diálogos ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 176
Author(s):  
Paulo Ribeiro Rodrigues da Cunha
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
The State ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

O presente artigo procura resgatar um dos períodos mais intensos e menos estudados da Guerra Fria no Brasil, quando duas correntes militares antípodas política e ideológicas atuaram na perspectiva de influenciar através de suas entidades de classe um projeto de nação. Entretanto, essa reflexão tem por foco, os militares nacionalistas e de esquerda, oficiais e praças das forças armadas cuja intervenção foi bem sucedida ao final, com a vitória da Tese do Monopólio Estatal do Petróleo e não intervenção brasileira no conflito coreano, embora ao custo de uma repressão sobre centenas de militares, muitos deles presos e torturados e até hoje não anistiados, demonstrando em última instância, a fragilidade da democracia e do Estado Democrático e de Direito no Brasil. Abstract The Military and the Cold War in Brazil The present article seeks to recover one of the most intense and least studied period of the Cold War in Brazil, when two military antipodal political and ideological currents acted in the perspective of influencing through its class entities a nation project. However, this reflection is focused on the nationalist and leftist military, officers and squares of the armed forces whose intervention was successful in the end, with the victory of the Thesis of the State Petroleum Monopoly and not Brazilian intervention in the Korean conflict, although at cost of a crackdown on hundreds of soldiers, many of them imprisoned and tortured and still unamused, demonstrating in the last instance the fragility of democracy and the Democratic State and Law in Brazil. Resumen Los Militares y la Guerra Fría en Brasil El presente artículo busca rescatar uno del período más intensos y menos estudiados de la Guerra Fría en Brasil, cuando dos corrientes militares antípodas políticas e ideológicas actuaron en la perspectiva de influenciar a través de sus entidades de clase un proyecto de nación. Sin embargo, esta reflexión tiene por foco, los militares nacionalistas y de izquierda, oficiales y plazas de las fuerzas armadas cuya intervención fue exitosa al final, con la victoria de la Tesis del Monopolio Estatal del Petróleo y no intervención brasileña en el conflicto coreano, aunque al costo de una represión sobre cientos de militares, muchos de ellos presos y torturados y hasta hoy no aniquilados, demostrando en última instancia, la fragilidad de la democracia y del Estado Democrático y de Derecho en Brasil.

‘We Have to Pay the Price’: German Workers and the US Army, 1945–1989

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 563-584
Author(s):  
Adam R. Seipp
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
United States Army ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Labour Unions ◽  
Us Army ◽  
Labour Policy ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

This article examines the relationship between German civilian workers and the United States Army in the Federal Republic of Germany during the Cold War. Using archival and published sources, the article offers an entangled history of ‘local national’ employees and their role in maintaining the American presence in Central Europe. Beginning in the late 1960s, German labour unions began to challenge American labour policy. In doing so, they consistently argued for a more forceful assertion of German sovereignty. This labour relationship was therefore important for both the military history of the Cold War and for the development of German democracy.

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