2023-06-14 07:13:28
SEven before the first national security strategy is decided in the cabinet this Wednesday, the coalition has made further demands for security policy in order to meet the demands of the turning point. They are collected in a position paper by the FDP foreign politicians Alexander Graf Lambsdorff and Ulrich Lechte, which their parliamentary group is yet to decide on. It is available to the FAZ and aims to set up a national security council. It is clear even before publication that such a statement is not included in the government paper.
The Security Council is not the only idea that was discussed as a security policy lesson from the turn of the century, but which will not be reflected in the security strategy at all or only in a weakened form. From what you hear. Also, the strategy comes much later than planned. Again and again there had been wrangling over individual points.
Recently, expectations of the paper had been dampened. It was a gain to be able to present such a strategy, it was said. After the decision in the cabinet, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will read the paper with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), Defense Minister Boris Pistorius and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (both SPD) will also be there. The Bundestag will discuss this on Thursday.
China, the rival
The strategy is intended to describe the security situation in the Federal Republic, from the threat from Russia to dealings with China – which is further described with the triad of partner, competitor and rival, albeit with an increasing emphasis on the latter. Above all, consequences should be drawn from the situation. That’s where it gets more complicated. The concept of integrated security is at the heart of the paper, which was written under the leadership of the Federal Foreign Office. It is spelled out under the keywords defensiveness, resilience and sustainability.
It is about the two percent target for defense as well as about climate change as a threat, food and energy security or feminist foreign policy. There will be no centralization of civil protection, and in the case of active cyber defence, the hackbacks, which recently led to discussions, it seems that the negative formulation in the coalition agreement has not (far) strayed.
In their position paper, Lambsdorff and Lechte write that one should not stand still after the security strategy has been adopted, “because the development of the strategy is always neglected in the day-to-day business of the various ministries”. Decision-making mechanisms, processes and structures must be designed in such a way “that they serve our goals and do not hinder their achievement”.
FDP proposes national security adviser
Based on the model of other democracies and in the spirit of a networked foreign, defense and development policy, the intention is to set up a National Security Council that will be responsible for an overall foreign and security policy strategy. They also propose a national security adviser to ensure “that in future in times of crisis, coordination can be more targeted, resources can be bundled more sparingly and decisions can be made more quickly”.
Lambsdorff and Lechte make specific statements as to how it could work: The security adviser should be proposed by the Foreign Office and confirmed by the cabinet. The Federal Security Council, which deals primarily with export controls, is a good “institutional nucleus” to “convert it into a strengthened National Security Council with its own competencies and resources”. Every four years, this council is to publish its core product: a security strategy.
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