Germany steps up to replace ‘unreliable’ US as guarantor of European security
Germany steps up to replace ‘unreliable’ US as guarantor of European security
Germany steps up to replace ‘unreliable’ US as guarantor of European security
Opinionated piece by Stefan Wolff, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham, UK.
... the EU’s largest and Nato’s second-largest economy, Germany is now also aiming to turn its Bundeswehr (the German army, navy and air force) into the “strongest conventional army in Europe”. Its most senior military officer and chief of defence, Carsten Breuer, has published plans for a rapid and wide-ranging expansion of defence capabilities.
Germany is finally beginning to pull its weight in European defence and security policy. This is absolutely critical to the credibility of the EU in the face of the threat from Russia. Berlin has the financial muscle and the technological and industrial potential to make Europe more of a peer to the US when it comes to defence spending and burden sharing. This will be important to salvage what remains of Nato in light of a highly probable American down-scaling – if not complete abandonment – of its past security commitments to the alliance.
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No nukes - no guarantees.
France has Nukes
The headline says Germany is replacing the US as security guarantor. Clearly it's more nuanced, as you point out.
So France, and only France has a believable deterrence. Or do you really think a front national President would risk Paris for a small tactical nuke on Nato troupes in Poland? France doesn't have tactical nukes, only the city destroying strategic ones, they can't answer without escalating.
You don't think we are capable of building nuclear weapons. If not, the French can deploy there nukes on our soil. The Green's will be pissed.
After the Russo-Ukrainian war began the Greens have really done a 180 on this sort of stuff, so I wouldn't count on it.
Greens? Not rather The Left?
Operation Paperclip
Of course youre capable of building nuclear weapons, but it takes time which we dont have
Germany already hosts nuclear weapons.
Considering this is about the USA becoming unreliable, I would say those nukes don't count.
Need to get nukes may also revitalize nuclear energy in Germany for peaceful purposes. I hope.
Possibly. Issue is the kind of reactors that are typically employed in submarines and on aircraft carriers are not necessarily the ones we want for civilian uses, but the temptation to use the civilian program as a training ground for military stuff is huge, for economic reasons. I think nuclear energy would be far more advanced if it wasn't shackled to the pressurized water designs.
Only for 'peaceful purposes'. You have to run nuclear reactors to create plutonium for the bomb. So all peaceful nuclear electricity creates the material for the bombs.