It may be that the autobiographical narrative has shifted increasingly towards an interpretation of responsibility and reliability towards allies, be they either NATO or solely European. As seen above, the involvement of German forces in Kosovo, the invasion of Afghanistan, and the deterrent forces in the Baltics could signal an important shift in this direction. Both Merkel and defense minister von der Leyen have at the very least signaled their support for increased spending and deployments to allied countries, though not matching this with actual increases. Merkel’s chosen successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, has gone a step further, arguing for both a large increase in defense spending that could have “domestic
consequences” (implying a diversion of financing from social services towards defense) and the use of German naval forces to blockade Russian ship movement from the Sea of Azov.87 As noted earlier however, this would have little support with the CDU’s Grand Coalition partners, the SPD. What this thesis has also demonstrated is that these commitments can be hollow in implementation, due often to a lack of material resources, troops, or financing. This discrepancy can best be explained through attempts to maintain German ontological security, in that policies are shaped to fit certain sub-narratives, but can often conflict with co-existing sub-narratives. These lead to clashes where policies either remain stagnant or shift rather unexpectedly.
87 Andreas Rinke and Paul Carrel, “Merkel protégé suggests blockade of Russian ships over Ukraine crisis,” Reuters, last updated 30 November 2018, available at https://www.reuters.com/article/us- germany-politics-kramp-karrenbauer/merkel-protege-suggests-blockade-of-russian-ships-over-ukraine- crisis-idUSKCN1NZ1PO.
Commentators have rightly characterized German security and defense policy as in a “dreamland”, though it is not entirely in a “discursive vegetative state”. Contestations over rhetorical justifications have occurred across the full spectrum of security policy, and it would seem the taboo is continuing to be lifted, even approaching the ultimate taboo of nuclear weapons.88 German policy enters an incoherent dream state as clashing identity sub-narratives have led to incoherent policy justifications, infighting between coalition partners and within parties (especially over issues related to anti-militarism and Russia policy), and inconsistencies between the political and the operational during military deployments. German policy debates and rhetorical shifts demonstrate clearly how shared knowledge is often a contested concept, rather than a static and singular “strategic culture”. Furthermore, material capabilities are heavily embedded within historical understandings of Germany’s role. These constructivist concepts inform the ontological security assumption that a secure identity is sought just as much as physical security, sometimes even at the expense of the physical.
This thesis has sought to answer two questions: 1) how does the German political community justify its foreign policy behavior and 2) why is there often a discrepancy between Germany’s foreign policy rhetorical ambition and the actual implementation of policy? Utilizing the cases of defense spending debates, the Balkan conflicts, the war in Afghanistan, and the newly initiated deterrent operations in the Baltics, it has shown that German political elites activate and deactivate certain identity sub-narratives (often being found among the eight identified by Techau) in order to fit a given policy change with the broader autobiographical identity narrative of Verantwortungspolitik (politics of responsibility). Be it a responsibility to
88Ulrich Kühn, Tristan Volpe, and Bert Thompson, “Tracking the German Nuclear Debate,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, last updated August 15, 2018, available at:
avoid militaristic defense spending, to protect civilians from mass atrocities, or to act as a responsible ally in conflict zones, each has a clear activation/deactivation dynamic that occurs. The argument that states seek to maintain not only physical security but also ontological security is a robust one, and the German case is an ideal opportunity to explore these dynamics both historically and in real time.
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