Due to its history, Germany has been rather cautious on the international stage since 1945. According to SPD leader Klingbeil, the Federal Republic must assume a new role in the future.
According to SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, Germany must claim to be a “leading power” in international politics.
In a keynote speech at a conference of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation on Tuesday, he justified this with the significantly growing expectations of Germany worldwide.
“After almost 80 years of restraint, Germany now has a new role in the international coordinate system.” The country has gained a high level of trust in recent decades, but this is also accompanied by expectations. “Germany is more and more the focus, we should meet the expectations that we have,” said Klingbeil. “Germany must have the right to be a leading power.”
So far, Germany has seen itself more as a middle power and not as a leading power in international politics. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) did, however, turn the tide in German foreign security policy after the start of the Ukraine war with his turning point speech and, above all, initiated a massive build-up of the Bundeswehr. In the past few weeks, he has pointed out several times that Germany will thus have by far the strongest armed forces in Europe. So far, however, Scholz has not spoken of a leading power like Klingbeil.
Klingbeil: Military force part of peace policy
“We need a completely different security policy debate in Germany,” said Klingbeil in his speech. He advocated a different approach to military force. «Closing one’s eyes to reality leads to war. We’re seeing that in Ukraine right now. For me, peace policy therefore means seeing military force as a legitimate political tool.»
He does not see this as a departure from the social democratic peace policy and refers to the first two SPD chancellors, Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt. They already knew that “military strength and capability are the basis for a powerful peace policy. At that time, the defense budget was more than three percent of our economic power. » Today, defense spending is well below two percent, but is now set to rise above two percent.
Klingbeil also called for a different social treatment of their own soldiers, which should be characterized by respect and recognition. “I wish that we would develop a new normality towards the Bundeswehr as a society.”
Source: Stern
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