Niemiecka polityka zagraniczna a kryzysy międzynarodowe 1991-2007: nowa tożsamość Bundeswehry
German foreign policy and the international crises 1991-2007: Bundeswehr’s new identity

Summary/Abstract: The central issue analyzed in the paper is to investigate the changes in the role of the German Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) after the major political changes that followed the end of the Cold War in general and, in particular, from the changes in foreign and security policies in Germany and Europę. In order to do so, we start tracing the essential historie developments, the resulting political discourses, and the normative shifts in Germany’s political culture Subsequently, the paper takes a closer empirical look at the gradual broadening and enlargement of German military deployments as well as political debates and concrete moves to transform the Federal Armed Forces from an “army of defense” into an “army in the field”. At the same time, these changes are referred to the United States’ world policy and ambitions to establish a coherent and effective common foreign and security policy growing within the European Union. As to the role of Germany’s armed forces, it is shown that a dynamic revaluation and upgrading had been initiated long before the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11,2001, within both the Transatlantic and European contexts. Finally, the paper evaluates the functionality and efficiency of the redefmed role of German armed forces against current global restructuring.

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