(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)