Germany's Geopolitical Maturation: Public Opinion and Security Policy in 1994 (Deutschlands geopolitische reifung: Oeffentliche meinung und sicherheitspolitik in 1994)
Abstract
This report analyzes the results of the most recent in a series of public opinion polls on national security issues in a unified Germany, conducted by Infratest Burke Berlin for RAND and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. It draws on survey work conducted in previous years and builds on the analysis presented last year in "German Strategy and Public Opinion After the Wall, 1990-1993," by Ronald D. Asmus (RAND/MR-444-FNF/OSD/A/AF, 1994). It should be of interest to both German and American policy makers interested in the future U.S.-German relationship, the trans-Atlantic Alliance, and Germany's future security role in Europe and beyond. This report highlights just how far German public opinion has shifted since the end of the Cold War on a range of foreign and security policy issues central to Germany's future role in Europe and the Atlantic Alliance. Germany's strategic role remains unequivocally pro-Western. Public support for NATO is increasing. Germans support a strong European Union (EU), not as an alternative to the Atlantic Alliance, but as a stepping stone to a new, more balanced partnership between the United States and Europe. At the same time, Germans are realizing that they face a new and broad spectrum of possible threats and security challenges in and around Europe. Germans also have made the conceptual leap, at least in principle, to a new security role beyond national defense. But whereas Germans support more engagement in principle, they seem to shy away when specific scenarios are involved. Many of the building blocks for a new consensus on security policy may already be in place. This new consensus, however, has not yet come together -- perhaps in part because of the lack of leadership and consensus in the political class. (35 figures, 26 refs.)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA428291
Entities
People
- Ronald D. Asmus
Organizations
- RAND Corporation