Germany and Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century

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.

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.

Foreword Introduction Part I: Sources of Change 1. Germany and Four Futures 2. The End of Civilian Power: Russia's War Is Changing German Policy 3. Technological Change, Innovation, and German National Security Part II: Deterrence 4. Nuclear Zeitenwende(n): Germany and NATO's Nuclear Posture 5. German Musings about a Franco-German or German Bomb 6. German Public Opinion on Nuclear Weapons: Before and after Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Part III: Arms Control and Disarmament 7. German Efforts to Halt the Disintegration of Nuclear and Conventional Arms Control 8. The Greens and Nuclear Weapons: Torn Between Disarmament Aspirations and Pragmatism 9. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: Changing Disarmament Discourses in Germany? Part IV: Nonproliferation 10. Germany and the Nonproliferation Treaty 11. Germany and the Puzzling End of Nuclear Latency 12. Germany's Role in the Success and Failure of the Iran Nuclear Deal Of Dependence and Conservatism: Conclusions for German Nuclear Policies in the 21st Century