Revolution or Adjustment? Issues of the Development of the German Forces in the Light of the Russian-Ukrainian War

Abstract

Russia’s latest military aggression to Ukraine not only forced the re-evaluation of German-Russian relations between February 21–27, 2022 but broke such taboos of German foreign and security policy and led to such defence policy decisions that had been unprecedented in Germany’s contemporary history. Even though we have seen important developments regarding several issues, this analysis does not deal with the transformation of German-Russian relations or the steps taken by Germany to reinforce allied defence and deterrence measures within NATO. However, it has a more narrow focus on Germany’s defence policy decisions that have been undertaken, and can also be characterised as “revolutionary”, including their potential realisation and possible consequences. We answer the question “What are the options for practically using the defence expenditure set to increase to 2 percent of GDP, plus the 100 billion-Euro defence modernisation fund, with regard to the first steps of policy formulation in defence modernisation and capability development that we have seen so far?”