Germany's 'holistic' national security plan delayed again

It has happened again: the presentation of Germany's much-vaunted new national security strategy has been postponed. It will be at least mid-June before the federal cabinet gives the green light to the document, which has been expected since February.

A debate in the federal parliament booked for May 25 had to be cancelled. As a result, when German and Chinese government representatives meet for talks on June 20 in Berlin, Germany will not be able to present any new China strategy, because that, like so much else, was to be based on the national security strategy.

The security strategy is an ambitious undertaking. For the first time ever, Germany is planning to bring all its foreign and security policy spheres under the umbrella of "integrated security," a concept based on the principle that security policy is more than just the military plus diplomacy.

"Many things factor into security: From education policy to health policy to environmental, nutrition and finance policies," explained Social Democrat lawmaker Johannes Arlt, who served as a major in the German military before entering parliament. "We have many areas and dimensions which we must consider when we talk about security as a whole."

'Security for the freedom of our lives'

Germany's coalition government, of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) agreed to form a new plan when they took office in 2021, when there was still peace in Europe.

By mid-March 2022, when German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock officially launched the development phase of the new strategy, the war in Ukraine had been raging for three weeks. In her speech, Baerbock defined the strategy's goal as nothing less than "security for the freedom of our lives," involving a triad of defensive capability, resilience, and sustainability.

Even the conservative opposition stood behind the plans. Christian Social Union (CSU) Bundestag parliamentarian Thomas Erndl told DW: "If we examine the threats facing us, hybrid threats, supply chains, dependency – even when it comes to medicines, it is clear that we need a holistic approach to find answers."

Government 'still at odds on key questions'

At the same time, Erndl questions the repeated delays to the plan's presentation: "But of course there needs to be an actual result. Unfortunately, we have not seen it yet."

The opposition politician's thinks that "the government is not united on key issues," pointing out that the tradition in Germany dictates that "important foreign policy decisions are made with great unity."

Perhaps the government and the Foreign Ministry, which is leading the development of the strategy, need not have put themselves under so much time pressure. It is, after all, a complex process involving many stakeholders, explained Antonia Witt of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF).

"It requires a wide-ranging process of communication within the government, but also with the population and experts," she said, "about what the security challenges are, which threat scenarios we can expect in the future and by what means Germany wants to achieve its goals in security policy. And that is a very, very important political process."

And because the strategy affects all areas of policy, it must "also cover many politically contentious issues," the political scientist said.

Hackbacks, 2% target

Many points in the national security strategy have already been agreed upon – according to newspaper reports, about 36 pages are complete – but not everything. According to the Reuters news agency, there remain disputes over issues such as weapons exports and cybersecurity. The Justice Ministry, led by the FDP, balks at so-called "Hackbacks" – meaning when there is a cyberattack, the targets would have permission to retaliate against the attackers.

Another sticking point is over NATO's goal for member states to spend 2% of their GDP on defense. "There was the question of whether there should be a direct balance of military and non-military spending," Witt said. "That is, whether for every euro spent on the military, one euro should be invested in non-military measures. That would mostly entail crisis diplomacy, but also development cooperation."

In the meantime, another proposal, to establish a national security council to coordinate among departments during crises, has long been buried.

According to Witt, the problem was deciding where this council should be located: Both the chancellery and the foreign ministry wanted to have the security council under their own roof.

Despite these challenges, Arlt is relaxed about the delays in presenting the national security strategy, and eager to focus on the, presumably imminent, result: "A security strategy should of course help things to ultimately move faster, for decisions to be made more quickly," the politician said.

"That is also why I now do not see it as a weakness that we keep postponing it for a month, and then another month," he added. "It is a new process for us. If the product turns out well, then it is worth the wait."

This article was originally written in German.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.