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An urgent, incisive assessment of Germany’s return to military power and Europe’s security as Russian aggression rises and US reliability falters.
After eighty years of restraint, Germany is returning to military power. For many years, German political culture rested on the conviction that military force belonged to a darker past—and that security could be outsourced to the United States or replaced by trade and diplomacy. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s return to the White House have shattered these illusions.
The threat of Russian aggression and the risk of US abandonment have triggered a German rearmament of historic proportions. But this rearmament also poses a dilemma. With right-wing populism rising at home, can Germany assume a greater military role without reviving old fears among its neighbours or undermining European stability? Can it become a credible security provider while remaining firmly anchored in liberal democratic values?
This timely, important book analyses Germany’s foreign policy and its relationship with military power from 1945 to the present, and explores the choices and alternatives for European security in the next decade and beyond. Challenging Germany’s ‘myth of pacifism’, Liana Fix argues that, as the post-war order fades, Germany can—and must—become a military power capable of protecting Europe when America will not.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I
POST-WAR GERMANY
The Myth of Pacifism
Founding Years: Rearmament from Ashes
Zero Hour: The Reinvention of the German Military
Dual Track Decade: Discomfort with Deterrence
East Germany and the End of the Cold War
Part II
UNIFIED GERMANY
New Germany, Old Illusions
Moralism and Economic Interests
Normalizing? The 1990s and the Yugoslav Wars
Fighting? Afghanistan and the War that Wasn’t
Snoozing? Ukraine and the Return of Geopolitics
Part III
ZEITENWENDE
The Return of Military Power
Abandoning the Myth of Pacifism?
The Putin Shock
The Trump Shock
“Kulturwandel” and the AfD Shock
Part IV
FUTURE GERMANY
Germany without the West
What is German Military Power for?
Europe’s Security Dilemma
The New Transatlantic Relationship
Russia and China
Conclusion
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index
Description
An urgent, incisive assessment of Germany’s return to military power and Europe’s security as Russian aggression rises and US reliability falters.
After eighty years of restraint, Germany is returning to military power. For many years, German political culture rested on the conviction that military force belonged to a darker past—and that security could be outsourced to the United States or replaced by trade and diplomacy. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s return to the White House have shattered these illusions.
The threat of Russian aggression and the risk of US abandonment have triggered a German rearmament of historic proportions. But this rearmament also poses a dilemma. With right-wing populism rising at home, can Germany assume a greater military role without reviving old fears among its neighbours or undermining European stability? Can it become a credible security provider while remaining firmly anchored in liberal democratic values?
This timely, important book analyses Germany’s foreign policy and its relationship with military power from 1945 to the present, and explores the choices and alternatives for European security in the next decade and beyond. Challenging Germany’s ‘myth of pacifism’, Liana Fix argues that, as the post-war order fades, Germany can—and must—become a military power capable of protecting Europe when America will not.
