German Foreign Policy (DE/FR/EN)

(Own report) - African countries are beginning to withdraw out of protest from the International Criminal Court (ICC) - which receives significant support from Germany - because, from its inception until the beginning of 2016, the ICC had only been indicting citizens of African countries. In spite of numerous war crimes committed by troops of western countries, not a single investigation has been initiated against them. As critical observers had already noted at the time of its founding, the ICC is a flexible instrument of powerful western countries for disciplining weaker countries, particularly recalcitrant African governments. According to German international jurists, even if military aggression would be declared a criminal offense, as is planned for next year, there will be enough room for interpretation to preclude, for example, the wars of aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999 or against Iraq in 2003 from prosecution. Germany was one of the main initiators of the ICC.

(Own report) - A recent survey has confirmed German companies’ massive dominance over the East European economy. According to the report just published by Deloitte Consulting, the German automobile industry has a particularly strong influence in that region. German car manufactures integrated Poland, Hungary and other East European countries into their global value added chain, hardly leaving those countries room for their own independent economic development. This is one of the reasons why these countries remain in stagnancy, economists call "Middle-Income-Trap." For some time, these countries barely succeed in reaching the average EU gross domestic product. This is why some countries are changing course and focusing more on promoting the domestic economy. However, this approach must confront, not only internal contradictions, but significant external pressure, not least of all from the EU.

(Own report) - According to a documentation, at least 300 civilians have been killed in Syria during US led Anti-IS Coalition airstrikes - with the involvement of German soldiers. The human rights organization Amnesty International presented the documentation on eleven of these air raids yesterday. The total number of civilian casualties caused by the airstrikes since the war on IS was launched in September 2014, can be expected to be much higher - up to 1200, according to observers. And this does not even include the number of casualties from western raids on Iraq, or the casualties that can be expected during neither the recapture of Mosul that has recently been started nor the forthcoming recapture of Raqqa. The German military is involved in preparing these airstrikes with reconnaissance flights and in-flight refueling. Whereas German politicians are reacting with indignation to casualties in East Aleppo from Russian airstrikes and calling for sanctions, no such demands are raised regarding the western Anti-IS Coalition.

(Own report) -While jihadi militias pursue their military offensive launched on the weekend in Aleppo, the German government is increasing its pressure on Russia. "As the most important supporter of the regime" in Damascus, Moscow must provide "a sound agreement for Aleppo," demanded German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. But it was in fact the militia that broke the ceasefire initiated by Russia late last week and it was they who were also preventing the evacuation of the civilian population by firing at the escape corridors, as a British journalist reported from Aleppo. Similar practices are being used by the militia in the Iraqi town of Mosul, however these are being described for what they are, i.e. the IS is using civilians as "human shields." The German government is intensifying its pressure on Russia, at a moment when Moscow is reinforcing its military strength in the Eastern Mediterranean with the deployment of an aircraft carrier battle group near the Syrian coast, aimed at achieving an equal footing with the western powers. A German Bundeswehr frigate is accompanying the French aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle" in the same region, where the Russian aircraft carrier "Admiral Kuznetsov" is going. Particularly the German Green Party leadership is raising demands for declaring a no-fly zone over Syria - preparing another escalation, risking a direct war with Russia.

(Own report) - Berlin persists in its support for Riyadh's ruling clan, despite the Saudi armed forces' ongoing war crimes committed in Yemen. Whereas demands to tighten sanctions against Russia are under consideration - for alleged or actual war crimes in the Syria's Aleppo - Saudi Arabia need fear no consequences even after bombing a funeral service, killing over 140 civilians. The Saudi-led war coalition's air raids in Yemen are already responsible for more than 2,400 civilian casualties, including patients in hospitals run by Doctors Without Borders and children in a Quranic school. Desperately poverty stricken Yemen, which depends on imports for 80 percent of its food, is being cut off from its vital supplies by Riyadh's maritime blockade. More than 1.5 million children are already suffering malnutrition, 370,000 of them acute. Medial care is insufficient, because Saudi Arabia is bombing pharmaceutical factories and limiting the import of medicine. German media hardly report on the humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen, for which Riyadh, one of Berlin's most important allies in the Middle East is responsible. Riyadh's war in Yemen against the Houthi insurgents is also aimed at rolling back Iran's influence, thereby also serving the interests of Germany's elite.

(Own report) - Berlin is using today's visit of Nigeria's President, Muhammadu Buhari to enhance its rapidly growing military influence in West Africa. Chancellor Angela Merkel's trip to Africa early this week has already revealed Germany's growing military importance on the African continent. According to reports, a "change" can already be noted, particularly in Mali. Traditionally within France's exclusive sphere of influence, the EU, "fundamentally under German leadership," is now increasingly determining that country's development. The German government is also expanding the Bundeswehr's activities and the supply of military hardware to Niger and Chad, along with the construction of a military base in Niger's capital Niamey. Berlin is also seeking to obtain influence in the war against Boko Haram in Nigeria. The first accords on support measures had already been reached with Nigeria last year. Germany is enhancing its network of influence in West Africa by increasing the deployment of expeditionary troops, the establishment of military bases and by supplying military aid. This could possibly reduce France's traditional political and military predominance in its former colonies.

(Own report) - At this years German "Unification" celebrations in Dresden - three years after his first public appeal for an extensive German global policy - German President Joachim Gauck can look back on a successfully concluded phase. October 3, 2013, Gauck first called on Germany to become more involved - also militarily - in international affairs. The campaign initiated with his speech had been carefully prepared and was aimed at incorporating members of the German elite, such as university professors and journalists from leading media organs. The Bundeswehr's recently adopted new White Paper is somewhat the official crowning of this campaign. In this paper, Berlin explicitly announced its commitment to global leadership, and, if necessary, to its enforcement by military means. At the same time, Berlin is pushing for the Bundeswehr's arms build-up and the militarization of the EU. Germany is increasing its military involvement in the "Arc of Crisis," as it is often called, meaning the arc of countries ranging from Mali, to Libya, Syria and Iraq.

(Own report) - Berlins demands for a renewed ceasefire are being accompanied by reports of the possible initiation of a program to supply insurgents in Aleppo with man portable anti-aircraft missiles. The Syrian government and Moscow must immediately return to a ceasefire, admonished German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The combat in Aleppo is intolerable. Even though the combat is becoming increasingly gruesome, the ceasefire had been doomed to fail from the beginning, because important insurgent militias - partisans of the West - rejected it and continued their combat. They even refused to accept a key element of the ceasefire, rejecting the demand that they halt their collusion with al Qaeda and its Syrian affiliate, the Jabhat al Nusra / Jabhat Fatah al Sham. That demand was considered particularly important because, as experts have been warning for months, al Qaeda is establishing a jihadi emirate in northern Syria. Confronted with the eventuality that the Syrian army may recapture Aleppo, Washington is now considering supplying man portable air defense systems, or "MANPADS," to insurgents allied with al Nusra - similar to the ones the US had previously provided the mujahidin fighting the Soviet military in Afghanistan. The German government remains silent because its own preferences will benefit - even though the missiles could wind up in the hands of al Qaeda.

(Own report) - Five years after NATO's aggression against Libya, a British parliamentary committee has issued a damning assessment of that war and its alleged causes. The allegation, Muammar Gadhafi was planning to massacre the people of Benghazi and that this must be prevented was the main pretext used by western powers for their intervention in March 2011. Internationally renowned experts found no credible evidence to substantiate this allegation, therefore it is probably false, concluded the parliamentary committee. Foreign interests, in fact, had played the decisive role. Referring to French intelligence officers, the report points out that French President Nicolas Sarkozy, for example, was interested in obtaining access to a greater share of Libyan oil, increasing French political influence in North Africa and demonstrating France's military power. The collapse of the Libyan state and the rise of militant Islamists were to be expected from the outset. Berlin can also not be exonerated from accusations. While officially rejecting the war - not least of all for reasons of German-French rivalry - Berlin actually dispatched more than a hundred German soldiers to NATO's headquarters commanding the war on Libya. The war resulted in the economic, social and political collapse of that country. Libya is on the verge of becoming consumed by a protracted full-scale civil war.

(Own report) - The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has once again sharply criticized the EU for its policy of warding off refugees. In view of the disastrous living conditions for the refugees on the Greek islands, it is urgent to at least bring a larger number of them onto the Greek mainland und finally begin to relocate them to other EU countries in accordance with these countries pledges, a UNHCR representative demanded in Athens. Berlin rejects this. The German government is demanding, on the contrary, that refugees be transported from the Greek islands back to Turkey and to resume the "Dublin III" deportations from Germany to Greece. The Athens asylum authorities' legal misgivings that Turkey, by no means, is a "safe third country," do not induce Berlin to change its course. Neither do current reports by human rights organizations, showing that hundreds of unaccompanied refugee minors are being held in camps, in violation of international norms, and some in police jail cells, often under desolate hygienic conditions. While Berlin is increasing pressure to deport, the number of refugees that have drowned, trying to cross the Mediterranean has set new records.

(Own report) - The German Bundeswehr's concrete role in the widely criticized air attacks carried out by the anti-IS coalition and its members has not become clear, even after the coalition's air strikes on Syrian government forces near Deir al-Zor. The Bundeswehr is supporting air strikes on IS/DAESH not only by furnishing in-flight refueling - already more than 1,100 times - but also by supplying intelligence information. This information is passed on to all coalition members through the "information space" in the anti-IS coalition's Combined Air and Space Operations Center at the Al Udeid Air Base (Qatar), where several Bundeswehr officers are stationed. Observers assume that some of this intelligence, for example, can be used also by Turkey to prepare its operations against Kurdish units in Northern Syria. It is not clear, whether this data has played a role also in preparing attacks, resulting in civilian casualties, such as the anti-IS coalition's air strikes on Manbij in mid-July, wherein more than 100 people were killed. Last June, the Bundeswehr declared that it had already evaluated more than 11,000 reconnaissance photos and passed them on to its allies fighting the war against IS.

(Own report) - Nearly 15 years ago, NATO launched its war on Afghanistan. Under the occupation - with Germany playing a significant role - the economic and social conditions of the country are disastrous and the security situation, desolate. Since 2001, more than 220,000 people have been killed in the war, either as direct victims of combat or indirectly, according to a comprehensive analysis. The security situation in the country has "dramatically deteriorated," affirms the German Bundestag's Defense Commissioner. Today, soldiers must be flown by helicopter from one base to another, because use of the roads is too dangerous, even for armored vehicles. According to the United Nations, the number of refugees has reached 1.1 million, tendency rising. Opium cultivation is still Afghanistan's largest economic sector. By national standards, 39.1 percent of the Afghans are living below the poverty line; 2.7 million are undernourished. The Bundeswehr, however, detects a positive development and recommends "patience and endurance." (This is part 2 of a german-foreign-policy.com series, reporting on consequences of German military interventions over the past two decades, in light of the German government's announcement of plans to increase its "global" - including military - interventions.)

(Own report) - The ceasefire, set to begin today in Syria, mutes Berlin's hegemonic ambitions. Negotiated between Washington and Moscow the ceasefire has placed Moscow, for the time being, on an equal footing with the USA in the Middle East, while ignoring Berlin and its claim to become a regulatory power for the region. This is a clear setback for the German government and the hopes it had had four years ago. At the time, German government advisors and foreign policy experts were drawing up plans together with Syrian opposition members for reconstructing Syria after Assad's expected overthrow. The implementation of these plans would have provided Germany exclusive influence, while pushing Russia, politically, to the sidelines. But, this did not happen. However, the ceasefire cannot be considered stable. On the one hand, it is uncertain that the insurgent militia will respect it and, on the other, if Washington will - as was decided - really engage in joint operations with Moscow against the al Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al Nusra, or its successor, Jabhat Fatah al Sham. Because of the latter's close cooperation with the so-called moderate militias, the USA risks hitting its western allies, when bombing Fatah al Sham.

(Own report) - Around 17 years after NATO's war against Yugoslavia and the beginning of the occupation of Kosovo with German participation, observers note that the de-facto protectorate is in a desolate political, economic and social condition. The first war in which the Federal Republic of Germany played an important role has had catastrophic consequences. De facto under EU control, Priština's ruling elite is accused of having close ties to organized crime and having committed the most serious war crimes. Its rampant corruption is spreading frustrated resignation within the population. Thirty-four percent of the population is living in absolute - and twelve percent in extreme - poverty, healthcare is deplorable, life expectancy is five years less than that of its neighboring countries and ten years below the EU's average. A report commissioned by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), describes the horrifying human rights situation, which includes vendettas "constantly carried out" with firearms. (This is part 1 of a german-foreign-policy.com series, reporting on consequences of German military interventions over the past two decades, in light of the German government's announcement of plans to increase its "global" - including military - interventions.)

(Own report) - To reinforce its position in the Pacific region, Berlin is initiating a regular dialogue with Australia at foreign and defense ministerial levels. Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier are participating in the first "German-Australian 2+2 Dialogue" held today in Berlin. The meeting, which will be repeated at regular intervals, is one of the measures initiated in early 2013 to enhance cooperation between Berlin and Canberra, in light of the shift of global policy priority from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In view of its growing economic and political importance, Washington considers China to be its main rival of the future. Therefore US President George W. Bush (2002) and US Foreign Minister Hillary Clinton (2011) explicitly declared this to be "America's Pacific Century," and Washington has begun redeploying its military forces closer to the People's Republic of China. Explicitly claiming to "help shape the global order," Berlin also feels obliged to reinforce its position in that region.

(Own report) - The German Bundeswehr's new "White Paper" is conceived as just a milestone in the ongoing development of German global policy and its instruments, according to an article published by Germany's leading foreign policy periodical. According to the article's two authors, who had been in charge of elaborating the "White Paper" for the German Defense Ministry, the White Paper's explicit claim to shape global policy and policy for outer space must be implemented and "brought to life" in the near future. While the German government is initiating new projects for upgrading military and "civil defense" measures, the EU is boosting its militarization: A growing number of government leaders of EU member states are supporting the creation of an EU army under openly proclaimed German leadership. According to a leading German daily, the balance sheet of recent German military involvements is "not exactly positive," but this should not discourage future military interventions. One should, however, not expect too much and harbor "illusions about rapid successes."

(Own report) - The Berlin office of an EU-wide think tank, is warning of how the "frustration over German dominance" is growing among EU member countries. Over the past ten years, the Federal Republic of Germany has become the EU's undisputed strongest power, according to a recent analysis of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). The "EU partners" must now "decide how to handle Germany's power." Some have expressed resentment; others have "centered their EU strategies around Germany," and look for "ways to influence Berlin's policy machinery." None of this leaves any doubt that "Germany's political class" continues to see the EU as "the best available framework for the articulation of its national interest." Whereas the ECFR's analysis concentrates its attention primarily on the political establishment of the other EU countries, the supplementary question to be raised in how to deal with German dominance is becoming increasingly urgent. Berlin is impelling the militarization of foreign policy as well as domestic surveillance and repression, measures, serving the preparation for war - a concern of everyone.

(Own report) - German government advisors are speculating about Russia's possible foreign policy offensives and discussing countermeasures to be taken. According to a research paper published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Russia "has continuously developed and further diversified" its foreign policy "tool chest" over the past few years. Today it includes "enhanced military capabilities, alongside numerous 'soft' tools." like "the orchestrated disinformation campaign in traditional mass media and online social networks, the instrumentalization of ethnic minorities, use of civil society organizations, economic cooperation, or economic pressure." The research paper describes fictitious scenarios, such as Russian support for extreme right-wing parties in Western European election campaigns as well as steps to ward off Russian influence. The types of international activities being ascribed to Russia are practices long in use by NATO countries - particularly Germany.

(Own report) - In view of the Duma elections in Russia, the German foreign policy establishment is discussing Russia's future foreign policy and appropriate western reactions. This discussion is deemed necessary, given the fact that the institutions analyzing foreign policy had failed to foresee Russian initiatives both in the Ukrainian conflict and the Syrian war, according to a study by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). The SWP analysis indicates that politicians and experts were taken in by their own propaganda and their "stereotyping" interpretations "blinded" them to actual developments. In his contribution to the discussion, a well-known Russian expert wrote that, for the time being, Moscow as well as the western powers will most likely continue a confrontational foreign policy, because it is in their respective interests. With this policy, both sides would seek to consolidate their alliances and overcome the growing divisions within their own societies. In the West, this can be seen in the mantra-like "mention of Putin in the establishment parties' elections and other campaigns."

(Own report) - The Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras has announced a new initiative to force Germany to pay reparations and compensations to Greece. During a memorial service for the victims of a massacre committed by the German Wehrmacht in the western Greek village of Kommeno, on Tuesday, Tsipras declared that, should the Germany government persist in refusing to pay reparations, Athens will seek "through diplomatic channels - and if necessary at the judicial level - " to take action against Berlin. In early September, the Greek parliament is scheduled to discuss a recently completed report quantifying the German reparations debt at 269 billion Euros. German government assertions that the reparations issue has been "closed" are unfounded. In fact, payment of the binding 1946 reparations sum, recognized by the London Debt Agreement of February 1953, had been deferred, but not annulled. Only a fraction of it has been paid. As confirmed by Horst Teltschik, former advisor to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Bonn had sought to evade its reparations obligations by explicitly not qualifying the 2 + 4 Treaty a "Peace Treaty." It had been feared that, with a peace treaty, suddenly "reparations demands from over 50 countries would land on the table," Teltschik explained.