Germany and NATO

• Main Author: Kaim, Markus
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press 2022
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198817307.013.33; https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/43988/chapter/371430241

Abstract At the end of Angela Merkel's chancellorship, NATO enjoys greater support in Germany than it has for a long time. Since Germany's accession in 1955, the North Atlantic alliance has been one of the two pillars on which German foreign and security policy has rested, along with the European integration process. Without US nuclear and conventional military capabilities, Germany and Europe could not protect themselves. In light of France's recent calls for greater European strategic autonomy from the United States, it will be critical for Germany to reconcile Berlin's European ties and its transatlantic commitments. This will also play a major role in NATO's new strategic concept, which will be adopted in the summer of 2022 and will provide answers to crucial questions such as the future of nuclear sharing, NATO's strategy toward a rising China, and the shape of relations with Russia. It is high time that Germany set out its own vision of Europe's future role in the alliance and thus fleshed out what Berlin means by stating that German security policy is supposed to ‘become more European in order to remain transatlantic’.