02 November 2022
Foreign Agents, Diplomatic Skirmishes and the Law on Diplomatic and Consular Relations
In September 2022, the Madrid-based NGO ‘Safeguard Defenders’ published a report entitled ‘110 Overseas – Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild’, in which it documented the existence of at least 54 extraterritorial and undeclared Chinese police stations in more than 30 countries, many of them European Union Member States, such as Germany, Ireland, or the Netherlands. These police facilities, operated under the guise of ‘service centres’ supposedly providing diplomatic and consular services such as extending driving licences for Chinese nationals, have hence been located in cities such as Dublin, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt. Continue reading >>
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13 April 2022
Peace and Security for Ukraine and Europe are not Created on the Drawing Board of the West
Viewing Ukraine as an object rather than a subject of negotiations is not an unfamiliar pattern of international security policy. It goes hand in hand with the dangerous tendency to turn Russia’s ‘Near Abroad’ ultimately into a ‘buffer zone’ even in Western political and academic discourses. This pattern has been at work in the course of the annexation of Crimea and the armed conflict in Donbas over the past eight years. Continue reading >>12 April 2022
The Security-Oriented Turn in Energy Law
The full range of strategic aspects should be taken into account by the Federal Government in developing its „national defence strategy“. Robert Blackwill and Jennifer Harris have already described the strategic importance of economic policy and especially energy policy measures as „war by other means“. Accordingly, redefining security policy must not stop solely at the selection of new weapons systems. Rather, the German government faces the task of also realigning its energy policy with the changed strategic situation in accordance with the European energy policy. Continue reading >>
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09 April 2022
“A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”
This post will reveal the history of Ukraine's continuing warning to Europe, and in particular to German authorities about the security dangers of the violent Russian regime and politics. It will demonstrate how the ignorant and weak reaction of German politics to these threats (given the prevalence of economic interests over security and European values) indirectly supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and how the Russian regime abused European languidness and neutrality to launch a large-scale war in Europe. This blogpost is not so much about condemning the mistakes of European politicians, but about suggesting ways to solve these problems, taking into account the experience with obvious mistakes. Continue reading >>
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08 April 2022
A National Peace and Security Strategy after the “Turning Point”
Military armament has been happening not just since the so-called “turning point”. Ultimately, a better equipped Bundeswehr alone cannot lead to sustainable peace. The concept of human security and a national security strategy raised by the Foreign Minister must not be based on a purely militarised concept of security. The Federal Government ought to align its actions accordingly. Continue reading >>
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06 April 2022
Arming for Peace
The German chancellor’s speech on February 27, 2022, stating that changed times also demand changed policies, has been readily interpreted as a plea for a primarily military-focused policy aimed at deterrence, which may now finally once again be oriented towards political realities. It is almost breathtaking how, in a very short time, entire traditions of thought are nominally being laid to rest in this debate, without any critical questioning of whether this is justified: Does the war in Ukraine really demonstrate that diplomacy or the approach of interdependence have failed? How wise can a policy be that simply wants to reverse past policy by means of a „turning point“? Continue reading >>
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02 April 2022
International Legal Order as a National Security Interest
The "Zeitenwende" of 27 February 2022 is, in effect, an admission of a gap between long-recognised interests in multilateralism and international law, on the one hand, and the sufficiency of foreign and defence policy strategies for upholding them on the other. A primary commitment to the modes of multilateralism and underlying legal obligations is no longer sufficient—if indeed it ever was—and Germany’s forthcoming National Security Strategy must address the more arduous political and military obligations necessary to make such a system possible. The turning point is, in short, the realisation of commitments deeply embedded in national foreign policy identity, which emerges as the foundation for broad legitimacy in the policy revolution. Continue reading >>
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30 März 2022
The National Security Strategy and the Zeitenwende in German Foreign Policy
The “Zeitenwende” in German foreign policy continues to require justification and facilitation, strategic and material underpinning, as well as structural and procedural changes. But time and again, it will require critical reflection. After years of partial denial of reality and misinterpretation of behavioural patterns of key international actors, there is a risk that everything will now be pressed into the scheme of great power and systemic rivalry, and that a new bipolarity between the Western world and the authoritarian states centred around China and Russia is conjured.
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28 März 2022
Is Berlin’s Overdue Defence Policy Adjustment Also a “Game Changer” for Franco-German Relations?
What does the “paradigm shift” (Zeitenwende) – as Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the readjustment of German security and defence policy – mean for the Franco-German couple? Relations between Paris and Berlin had cooled down in recent years, particularly in relation to security and defence dossiers. Can we now expect that the ice between the two countries will melt? By no means. Even though Germany has sent a first signal that it no longer wants to close its eyes to the geopolitical realities of the 21st century, a number of touchy security and defence issues remain on the table. Continue reading >>
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28 März 2022
A Strategic Culture Must be Part of the National Security Strategy
The handling and development of the war in Ukraine will be a test of the effectiveness of Germany's role in the EU and the world. The most important part of the turning point must be a return to Realpolitik and the development of a national security strategy based on smart power. The turning point in Germany concerns four areas in particular: 1) German armed forces (Bundeswehr) 2) strategic culture 3) National Security Strategy 4) strengthening crisis prevention and the development of a "civilian reserve". Continue reading >>
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