New strategy paper: Union for a "turning point" in security policy

Anyone who would have called for a new security architecture ten years ago would almost certainly have been branded a warmonger and militarist.

Now Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine has also led to a rethink in the Union parties.

What is needed is "a turning point in German politics," says the draft of a paper that the presidencies of the two Union parties want to adopt this Monday at a joint meeting in Cologne.

“What is important: Think security comprehensively and act accordingly.” Germany will also have to assume more responsibility in the world.

Heike Schmoll

Political correspondent in Berlin, responsible for “Bildungswelten”.

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"Germany needs a danger radar, the country must measure and evaluate all of its dependencies," says the so-called Cologne declaration, which is available to the FAZ.

The threats include not only military threats, but also dangers from terror and organized crime, disinformation campaigns and all forms of extremism, but also climate damage and dependencies in the economy, technology, energy supply and food supply.

Think security comprehensively

The CDU and CSU are calling for the German defense forces to adapt “to the new reality”, for a comprehensive security strategy and for a National Security Council to embody the new security policy and present it to the outside world.

“Business and employees, science and innovation drivers, civil society and think tanks” should also be integrated into the work.

What is needed is “a common new way of thinking about security and sovereignty”.

At the same time, disinformation and information manipulation from abroad must be uncovered and prevented.

It is about thinking about the “security concept comprehensively, because it not only affects the defense and interior departments,” explained the CDU member of the Bundestag Serap Güler of the FAZ “The core of the paper is a holistic security architecture, which is urgently needed in the current situation is.” It encompasses defence, economic and development policy.

The economic dependency of the energy supply has not yet been discussed in the Security Council.

A National Security Council is needed in the Chancellery that brings together strategic thinking and operational defense capability, said Güler, who is a member of the Bundestag's Defense Committee.

In the future, security policy must be conceived and designed across departments and with the involvement of the federal states and local authorities as well as the private sector.

"Security policy must be transparent and informative," the paper says.

In climate policy, the CDU and CSU demand that the necessary reorganization of energy policy must be "consistently used to accelerate energy efficiency, renewable energies and technological innovation".

They also advocate a "climate club of international pioneers" that combines progress in climate protection with economic opportunities.

"Climate, energy, human rights and security are considered holistically."

The 100 billion package for the Bundeswehr is far from enough to build a comprehensive security architecture, said Güler.

Without "clear investment goals and procurement and structural reforms," ​​the money will "fizzle out," the paper says.

"Our humanitarian and our security policy responsibility must not end at the national borders - neither at the German nor at the European one, if we want to think security comprehensively".

This also includes taking refugee movements into account.

Too safe?

Güler justified the fact that the Union, which has provided the defense ministers for the past 16 years, with the proposal for a new security architecture did not go public earlier with the fact that the Union - like society - changed too much in the first ten years of government felt safe and no longer thought in terms of war.

The fact that peace cannot be taken for granted has only become apparent in the years since the annexation of Crimea.

“The social climate has changed.

There were never parliamentary majorities for such projects.” According to Güler, it was the Social Democrats Martin Schulz, Andrea Nahles and Rolf Mützenich who opposed the two percent target for defense spending.

Germany's security includes "also the security of jobs and income" for employees and the self-employed.

The Union notes that this can only be achieved with crisis-proof supply chains, reliable trading partners and the fight against inflation and currency devaluation.

"Therefore, Germany needs a new globalization strategy that deals more with growth opportunities in the EU, the USA and Africa and reassesses its dependence on China," the paper says.