(Defence; 01-02; p.2)
There may be more to it than just the simple
realisation of not being able to initiate major re-directions
within about two months until federal elections.
A different political framework
As declared in a variety of documents between
1992 and 1994, NATO and the WEU have given up their sole commitment
towards territorial defence. Moreover, the west is no longer confronted
with east-central European armed forces; on the contrary they
are pushing for becoming NATO members. Thus, the political framework
has changed considerably and the strategic situation is less tensed
since the former war-allied retreated to their respective territories.
The relevant political actors in Germany indeed took that into
consideration and reacted accordingly. The NVA, the GDR's army,
has been successfully integrated into the Bundeswehr, its western
counterpart as well as German soldiers for the first time took
part in specifically military missions not aimed at territorial
defence during the war in Bosnia.
The Bosnia-mission - air surveillance by NATO forces mandated
by the UN - did cause discussions among German politicians but
was not decided by debate. It had to be the Supreme Court deciding
the issue from a juridical point of view on 12 July 1994. With
their decision the judges made clear that the Bundeswehr can be
legitimised only by parliament and must not be seen as exclusive
domain of governmental action.
Based on this decision one might have expected in the following
eight years a debate about goals assigned to the armed forces
and means provided. Alas, there has been close to none: neither
has a form of criteria index been established defining at least
vaguely responsibilities of the military, nor has there been debate
about the army's structure and procurement issues.Not before Scharping's
era the government started developing concepts about these questions.
These were namely the report of the Weizsäcker-commission publicised
in 2000 and the "Eckwerte" (translated: cornerstones)
and "Eckpfeiler" (pillars) provided by the MoD in the
same year. (read on here)