A militarily expanding Germany has the right idea |
A militarily expanding Germany has the right idea
During the Cold War, the West German Army was considered second only to that of the United States as NATO’s most capable land force. At the same time, East Germany’s army was considered the second-most capable Warsaw Pact force after that of the Soviet Union.
Perhaps it was not surprising, therefore, that British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President Francois Mitterand both initially opposed German reunification, driven by memories of German military prowess, especially in the first years of World War II.
As the USSR and the Warsaw Pact were beginning to unravel, Thatcher told Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, “We do not want the unification of Germany. It would lead to changes in the post-war borders, and we cannot allow that, because such a development would undermine the stability of the entire international situation, and could lead to threats to our security.”
In the event, German reunification did not result in Thatcher’s dire predictions. Like much of NATO Europe, and indeed the U.S., Germany sought to reap a peace dividend by drawing down its force levels. In the three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, German defense spending declined from 1991 to 2007, with only occasional and minor increases in subsequent years, resulting in major force reductions.
The threat to European security that emerged in the last decade came not from the united Germany that Thatcher feared, but from a revanchist Russia. For nearly 15 years, as Russia first attacked Georgia in 2008 and then began to prey upon Ukraine with its seizure of Crimea in 2014, Germany did little to bolster its defenses.
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