German Mobilization Strategies: Research for an Appropriate Concept for Collective and National Defense in the 21st Century
Abstract
The importance of national defense and society's contribution are unpopular and often avoided topics in the German debate after two world wars in the 20th century. The achievements of 1989/90 and the expansion of a European community, supported by the security policy that Germany is surrounded by friends, leads to a perception of a security bubble in a fast-changing international environment and neglects the importance of military readiness to protect the heartland. Independent of NATO's concept for Collective Defense, the following monograph argues that Germany requires a training and mobilization concept, giving careful consideration of society's acceptance, to increase its readiness for national defense in times of increased global insecurity. Under investigation of the reconstruction of a mass army prior to World War II and with focus on the rearmament process in 1956, this thesis identifies Germany's strengths and weaknesses of reserve and mobilization models in the past and uses traditional pillars for a new concept in the 21st century. Driven by the main criteria, to create an asymmetric advantage over an enemy with a faster mobilization of resources, under consideration of the tradeoff between freedom and citizenry duty, it describes why Germany needs two types of armed forces: a professional army with its own reserve positions for NATO's Collective Defense, and the Home Defense forces as a militia concept with professional short-term training on a federal state level. This is a concept rooted in Scharnhorst's ideas from 1806 to awaken the spirit of a nation for the defense of fatherland and freedom.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 21, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1158731
Entities
People
- Sebastian Becker
Organizations
- School of Advanced Military Studies