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17 August 2010
GPPi fellow discusses future of the Bundeswehr on hr2kultur radio
On 16 August 2010, GPPi Fellow Philipp Rotmann took part in a radio program on the future of the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) and the current debate about ending conscription and moving to a volunteer force. On "Der Tag," hosted by Florian Schwinn on hr2kultur, a channel of the Hessische Rundfunk public broadcasting station, he joined Otfried Nassauer of the Berlin Information Center for Transatlantic Security (BITS) and Marc Lindemann, author of "Unter Beschuss: Warum Deutschland in Afghanistan scheitert" ("Under Fire: Why Germany is failing in Afghanistan").
Asked to what extent Germany's armed forces are unique as compared to its main allies in Europe and the United States, Rotmann argued that to answer this question a number of components to the post-war German military need to be understood. The system of deeply intrusive parliamentary control, including the need for approval of any but the most limited operations, is a unique feature of the German system, one that has acted quite effectively as a transmission belt for the electorate's concerns.
Within the ideal of the Staatsbürger in Uniform, the German military combines a commitment to civil rights and personal freedom of conscience for soldiers with a code of moral and responsible conduct that is universal among democratic armed forces in the West. This part, Rotmann argued, is not unique. The similarity is obscured by the prominent role of the warrior ethos in the U.S. military. However, similar attitudes also exist within the German forces.
Similarly, the traditional German ideal of a highly devolved command authority – in which commanders on the ground are supposed to possess greater tactical freedom to implement their orders than their counterparts in other armies – is being eroded while key allies have been starting to devolve their own tactical control in the last few years. As a result of the domestic political risks associated with the war in Afghanistan, a system of micro-managing tactical decisions has crept into the German system of command and control; this probably gives a German battalion commander today less tactical choice than his U.S. counterpart.
With respect to the debate about conscription and a volunteer army, Rotmann argued that these issues of organizational identity and culture are largely independent of the recruitment mechanism itself. There are many important influences on the degree of democratic control, loyalty and moral integrity of a military organization as well as its integration into society at large. And by the current extent of academic knowledge, the kind of limited conscription that Germany has been practiced for two decades is likely to be of little influence, either way.
To listen to the complete program (53 mins), hr2kultur offers a podcast as well as a download option (MP3, 49 MB).
For more information, please contact Philipp Rotmann.