DGAP-Discussion on Germany’s Role in the World. June 20th 2016 in Berlin. Following a presentation of the study „Europeans Face the World Divided“ by the Pew Research Center.

.@JTrittin is discussing the results of the survey of @pewresearch with @bruceestokes and @HRiecke pic.twitter.com/B0eq5osAay

— DGAP e.V. (@dgapev) 20. Juni 2016

Ladies and Gentelmen,

thank you for the invitation.

For two years we have been debating, if Germany should take on more responsibility in the world. The sometimes contradictory results of this study suggest:

The answer is yes, but the much more important question remains: what is our responsibility and how do we take it on?

We live in a world full of globalized crises and conflicts. Our response should be a smart foreign- and security policy. Instead this administration is promoting what can only be described as insecurity policy.

I want to illustrate my claim with three points: our arms build-up, our engagement in coalitions of the willing and our tendency to shirk responsibility.

More tanks won’t make us safer

If you want to know, how the German minister of defense interprets German responsibility you only have to look at her proposals for the Bundeswehr. She wants more combat tanks, more reconnaissance tanks, more infantry tanks and more tanks for transport. You can practically hear the echoes of the Cold War in all those rattling tank treads. Von der Leyen, here, is in opposition to the foreign minister, who just yesterday criticized this kind of saber rattling.

However, the crisis in Eastern Ukraine shows that smart diplomacy will get us further than sheer military might: while Republicans in the US Congress and also some here in Germany called for arms-shipments to Ukraine, US-President Obama as well as our Chancellor remained level-headed and negotiated the Minsk accords – using diplomatic and economic sanctions rather than escalating the situations with military means.

Merkel’s administration however hasn’t been able replicate the lessons of Ukraine. The German government is still pursuing the missile defense shield even after the nuclear deal with Iran. Obviously this is raising suspicions in Russia that the shield was aimed at Moscow all along.

And finally, Ursula von der Leyen intends to spend 130 billion Euros over the next 15 years to arm the Bundeswehr, mostly for symmetric threats in a world that’s plagued with asymmetric threats. NATO is pushing for every member to spend at least two percent of their Gross Domestic Product on defense and the German government seems eager to comply.

But the Pew Study shows: two thirds of Germany are against such an increase in military spending. They know that more armament won’t lead to more security.

Multilateralism is more than coalitions of the willing

Our current security challenges – be it failing states, asymmetrical conflicts or climate change – cannot be solved with the instruments from the Cold War tool box. We have to meet these challenges with a smart combination of diplomacy, political and economic means and if necessary military force as a last resort. But most importantly: we have to meet these challenges together.

Never again and never alone have been pillars of the German foreign policy doctrine – and the lesson of the horrors of World War II. It’s also in the Pew Poll with a great majority of Germans stating that the interests of allies and international compromise should guide our foreign policy.

I think they are right and we Greens have been criticizing the tendency of the German government to engage in coalitions of the willing. The military mission of German fighting-planes in Syria is just one example. There is no UN Security Council mandate and Merkel and Steinmeier made no effort to get one before sending German troops into this mess.

There’ no coherent strategy and, as always, no exit-strategy.

These Coalitions of the Willing are undermining our basic law. And they are undermining the United Nations.

Despite its need for reform, whenever a situation turns sour, we send the UN to pick up the pieces. Just ask UN Special Representative Martin Kobler who’s currently trying to fix what we broke in Libya.

Given how much we count on the UN, we contribute very little.

We send 35 German policemen and –women on UN missions. Whereas Ghana, a country with a third of our population, is sending ten times as many police officers.

Coalitions of the willing are short-sighted foreign policy. We need real multilateralism. That includes strengthening the UN and our common European Foreign Policy – something that 74 percent of Germans and Europeans want according to the study presented here today.

We have to face our complex responsibilities

The German population seems to have a better understanding of the limits of military force than the German government does.

In the Pew study, two thirds of the respondents said that too much emphasis on military action would only lead to more hate and more terrorism.

Which gets me to my third point: our responsibilities are complex, they extend to weapons’ exports, refugee policy, economic development and climate change.

The Merkel-Doctrine backfired

As the third-largest exporter of arms Germany has to face its responsibility for destabilizing regions and fueling conflicts.

German companies have sold 4.2 billion Euros worth of arms outside of Germany – and this does not even include the very dangerous exports of small arms and ammunition. A third of these arms-sales went to countries in Northern Africa and the Middle East.[1] But the bitter truth is:

The Merkel-Doctrine – we sell arms to “strategic partners” and they solve our conflicts – has backfired, literally. Just this January, weapons that the German government had sent to Peschmerga-fighters in Northern Iraq turned up on the black markets of the region.

Unfortunately arms exports were not part of the Pew Study, but a recent Emnid poll shows: 83 percent of Germans are against these sales.[2] Our government should listen to them.

Managing migration instead of securitizing it

Further responsibility comes with the rising number of refugees.

And again, Europe is doing its best to outsource this responsibility to regimes with a questionable human rights record. It used to be Gaddhafi, whom we payed to keep away the refugees. Now we have to ask: Are Erdogan and the new Libyan government the new partners in this dubious endeavor?  

We have EU and NATO ships patrolling the Central Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea. And we tighten our refugee laws.

But fighting the refugees instead of the root causes is not just cynical, it’s plain stupid. We need to manage migration, not securitize it.

More equality means more security

We also have to own up to the promises we made on development aid. Again, two thirds of Germans are in favor of meeting this responsibility. Our government, however, is more focused on armament and hitting NATO’s 2-percent-goal than finally realizing the 0.7-percent-goal for development aid.

A world in which 62 billionaires own just as much as 3.5 billion people can never be a safe world. We have to tackle this inequality by closing tax loopholes and instituting a financial transaction tax.

Climate change as a threat multiplier

And finally a less obvious but enormously dangerous risk factor for our global stability: climate change. Don’t just trust the Green politician – ask the public. The Pew study shows: the concern over climate change as a threat has risen in every country polled – three fourths in Germany.

Or take it from the US-Defense department which categorized climate change as a threat multiplier[3]. Most experts agree: Long droughts and rising sea levels lead to social tensions and conflicts.

The international community decided to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But even in this area Germany is failing to take on responsibility. The Energiewende-country is currently governed by parties that take their directions from big coal and big nuclear and just last week announced a blockade against the fast development of new renewable energies.

Responsibility to be smart

So: Germany has to take on more responsibility in the world. But that does not mean buying more tanks, exporting more weapons and joining more coalitions of the willing.

US-President Obama has been criticized for his foreign policy doctrine “don’t do stupid shit”[4]. But he’s right. We have a responsibility to be smart. That means:

• foster cooperation, don’t do arms races
• engage in real multilateralism and strengthen the UN
• take responsibility, don’t outsource it to authoritarians and dictators
• and finally, own up to your commitments on economic aid and climate protection

Pew has proven, that’s the sort of smart responsibility, Germans and Europeans could get behind.

Thank you.

.@JTrittin: #Germany ready for responsability. Internat. responsability is being smart; not engage in coalitions of the willing @pewresearch

— DGAP e.V. (@dgapev) 20. Juni 2016

[1] http://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/politik/artikel/728320/deutschland-auf-rang-drei-im-waffenhandel-1

[2] https://www.ohne-ruestung-leben.de/fileadmin/user_upload/startseite/2016/Feb16-Umfrage-REX-Linke.pdf

[3] http://www.defense.gov/News-Article-View/Article/603440

[4] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525/

Foto: Dirk Enters, DGAP