Bastian Giegerich Book order

The rise or resurgence of revisionist, repressive and authoritarian powers threatens the Western, US-led international order upon which Germany’s post-war security and prosperity were founded. With Washington increasingly focused on China’s rise in Asia, Europe must be able to defend itself against Russia, and will depend upon German military capabilities to do so. Years of neglect and structural underfunding, however, have hollowed out Germany’s armed forces. Much of the political leadership in Berlin has not yet adjusted to new realities or appreciated the urgency with which it needs to do so. Bastian Giegerich and Maximilian Terhalle argue that Germany’s current strategic culture is inadequate. It informs a security policy that fails to meet contemporary strategic challenges, thereby endangering Berlin’s European allies, the Western order and Germany itself. They contend The authors show why Germany should seek to foster a strategic culture that would be compatible with those of other leading Western nations and allow Germans to perceive the world through a strategic lens. In doing so, they also outline possible elements of a new security policy.

First Published in 2009. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book analyses the extent to which national strategic cultures of EU member states are compatible both with one another and the emerging multinational consensus expressed in the EU"s European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The juxtaposition of ESDP and national strategic culture generates a map of adaptation pressures faced by EU member governments. Case studies of Austria, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom are matched with exploratory analysis of Denmark, Ireland, Spain, and Sweden. National strategic cultures define the realm of what is possible regarding national adaptation to international change in defence policy. The EU level serves as an intermediary level between the domestic and the international arenas.