(Kabul; 10-03; p.3)

Accelerated decision-making?

Recently it has been stated that special regulations are needed to speed up the decision about out-of-area missions of German armed forces. If there is such a necessity can be doubted.

To put it into a historical perspective: the intentionally or unintentionally war-experienced fathers and mothers of Germany’s constitution, the Basic Law, considered necessary no other than the regulations especially of the articles 115a, 115e and 115l for the "case of defence". The "case of defence" is defined by article 115a as "[t]he statement that the federal territory is attacked by armed force or such an attack is imminent" (Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Textausgabe. Stand: Dezember 2000. Bonn 2001; all quotes are translated, originals in German).
The three articles mentioned prescribe the prerogative of the parliament which in any case may only be dismissed temporarily because of states of emergency (cf. ibid.). – Some MPs nowadays think, there was a necessity to not have the parliament decide on every single out-of-area mission of the armed forces. Their arguments will have to be weighed against the historic example.

Supposed, there was an agreed reason: what were the criteria for an according deployment and what were the political consequences?
As possible criteria a small number of soldiers or an only partly military mission have been mentioned. (read on here)