1st Edition
Germany and Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century Atomic Zeitenwende?
This book is the first scholarly book to take a comprehensive look at Germany’s nuclear weapons policies in the 21st century.
German foreign and security policy is facing a profound reorientation. Great power competition between the United States and both a revanchist Russia and a rising China, the return of war and nuclear threats to Europe, and the emergence of new technologies all force Germany to adapt. German policymakers and scholars increasingly speak of a pivotal Zeitenwende, an epochal turning point in history. How does Germany adapt its nuclear policies to these changing conditions?
The volume brings together internationally renowned nuclear scholars and policy analysts from Germany and abroad. Focussing on German nuclear deterrence, arms control and disarmament as well as nonproliferation policies, the contributors assess how German leaders have navigated continuity and change, domestically and abroad. The volume concludes that Germany remains bound by dependence on the United States and its own conservatism. Within these parameters, German leaders have adapted slowly to change and continue to balance seemingly contradictory deterrence and disarmament goals.
This book will be of much interest to students of nuclear proliferation, security studies, German politics and International Relations, as well as policymakers.
Foreword
Catherine Kelleher
Introduction
Ulrich Kühn
Part I: Sources of Change
1. Germany and Four Futures
Robert Legvold
2. The End of Civilian Power: Russia's War Is Changing German Policy
Liana Fix
3. Technological Change, Innovation, and German National Security
Amy J. Nelson
Part II: Deterrence
4. Nuclear Zeitenwende(n): Germany and NATO’s Nuclear Posture
Tobias Bunde
5. German Musings about a Franco-German or German Bomb
Barbara Kunz And Ulrich Kühn
6. German Public Opinion on Nuclear Weapons: Before and after Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Michal Onderco
Part III: Arms Control and Disarmament
7. German Efforts to Halt the Disintegration of Nuclear and Conventional Arms Control
Wolfgang Richter
8. The Greens and Nuclear Weapons: Torn Between Disarmament Aspirations and Pragmatism
Giorgio Franceschini
9. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: Changing Disarmament Discourses in Germany?
Katja Astner and Moritz Kütt
Part IV: Nonproliferation
10. Germany and the Nonproliferation Treaty
Harald Müller
11. Germany and the Puzzling End of Nuclear Latency
Ulrich Kühn
12. Germany’s Role in the Success and Failure of the Iran Nuclear Deal
Cornelius Adebahr
Of Dependence and Conservatism: Conclusions for German Nuclear Policies in the 21st Century
Ulrich Kühn
Biography
Ulrich Kühn is Director of the Arms Control and Emerging Technologies Program at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and a Nonresident Scholar with the Nuclear Policy Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.
'Ulrich Kühn’s comprehensive volume covers Germany‘s complicated relationship with Russia, perceptions of U.S. credibility, and the value of being in a nuclear alliance. A must read for NATO policymakers and scholars of nuclear studies.'
Heather Williams, Project on Nuclear Issues, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC, USA
'This timely volume fills a gap in research that existed for too long. How Germany, a vital U.S. ally, deals with the changing nature of nuclear weapons policies is crucial to understanding the challenges of the new nuclear age.'
Tristan Volpe, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, USA
