Analysis on German Use of Force Policy
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Wang, Shun-Wen
Abstract
This dissertation deals with German use of force policy. It starts with German security policy before unification and examines the cases after the normalization of German use of force policy. With the normalization of military deployment abroad, this dissertation takes some most important cases of German military deployment, including Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan. It also takes Iraq as a contrast case to show the principles, modes and retrictions in German use of force policy.
This dissertation also deals with international relations theories and their practices on German use of force policy. The positive attitude of German use of force policy provoked the debates among the scholars who are interested in that. Scholars debate on which theory is more proper in researching use of force policy after the German unification, the decisive formational causes of the use of force policy, the role of Germany on European security and international security after the unification. For example, realists take on the change of international system, which was from bipolar system to unipolarity without hegemony. Germany, accordingly, faces the choices between autonomy and influence. Neo-institutionalists stress the effects of institutions and strategic culture. They think that Germany still insists on its strategic culture and the role as a civilian power. Constructivists start from the inter-subjective effect of international and societal norms. They think the change of German use of force policy is also related to history, culture and norm.
However, this dissertation doesn’t deal with the ontological, epistemological or methodological debates among theories, and doesn’t present a synthesis among them. The key focuses are on the external and internal factors of German policy and find out which is significant in related with the cases, the advantages and disadvantages of international relations theories in examining the cases of German use of force policies.
In Chapter one, the dissertation examines security policies and cases of Gulf war, Somalia and Bosnia, and concludes with principles and restrictions of its policies. Chapter two, three and four discuss German use of force policy on Kosovo, Afghan and Iraq. It also concludes the priciples, modes and restrictions in decision making process, tasks evaluation, and reconstruction among them. Chapter five evaluates the effects of use of forces policies, including Germany itself, regional and international effects.
Finally, this dissertation finds that the major external factors of German use of force policy are international structure, international organization, humanitarianism, alliance, and the risks of mission. The major internal factors are strategic culture, law and jurisdiction of Federal Constitutional Court, national interests, consensus among elites. I also conclude that realism with the revision of neo-classical realism, especially on elite consensus will broaden and deepend the explanation in Germany’s cases.
However, as we have seen in this dissertation, none of the theories can explain every case. Since there is no theory can be falsified like Imre Lakatos said, we have to take a more comprehensive and open methodology in my research.
Subjects
military deployment
Kosovo
Afghan
Iraq
neo-classical realism
Type
thesis
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