The Politics of German Defence Policy Policy Leadership, Bundeswehr Reform and European Defence and Security Policy Philip Thomas Adrian Dyson London School of Economics, University of London, PhD. UMI Number: U194842 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Disscrrlation Publishing UMI U194842 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 IP Library bnic: ..iTdiy 01 Political and Economic Science TM£S£S F q^946Z Abstract This thesis is a study of the role of policy leadership in German defence and security policy between 1990 and 2002, with particular reference to reform of the Bundeswehr. It situates this case study in the framework of a set of analytical perspectives about policy change derived from public policy theory, arguing that public policy theory has either underestimated policy leadership or failed to discriminate different leadership roles, styles and strategies. The author rejects the dominant contextualist and culturalist approach to leadership in studies of German defence and security policy in favour of an interactionist approach that stresses the dialectical interaction between policy skills and strategic context. The case study also shifts the focus in studies of policy leadership in Germany away from a preoccupation with the Chancellor to the role of ministerial and administrative leadership within the core executive. The thesis illustrates the strongly self-referential nature of Bundeswehr reform, despite adaptational pressures from Europeanisation and ‘NATO-isation’, and the domestic politics of base closures. It also shows how domestic macro-political arrangements predispose leadership roles in German defence and security policy towards brokerage and veto playing rather than towards entrepreneurship. Wir fühlten aile, wie tiefund furchtbar die àusseren Màchîe in den Menschen hineingreifen konnen, bis in sein Innerstes, aber wir fühlten auch, dass es im Innersten etwas gab, was unangreifbar war und unverletzbar} * * Seghers, A (2002), Das Siebte Kreuz (Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, 20* edition) p. 408. Table of Contents Abstract 2 Table of Contents 4 Acknowledgements 7 List of Tables and Figures 9 Chapter 1: Introduction and Theoretical Approach 10 1.1 Introduction 10 1.2 The Concept of Policy Leadership and the Study of Policy Change 17 1.3 Public Policy Theory and Analytical Perspectives of Policy Change 25 1.4 The Interactionist Approach to Policy Leadership 37 1.5 Ontology and Epistemology 42 1.6 Research Methodology 43 1.6.1 Qualitative Method and the Case Study Method 44 1.6.2 Sources of Evidence 47 Chapter 2: The Domestic Context of Bundeswehr Reform 50 2.1 The Bundeswehr Policy Sub-System 51 2.2 Interlocking and Nested Policy Sub-Systems: Defence, Foreign, Security and Budgetary Policy 59 2.3 Conclusion 67 Chapter 3: The Post-Cold War Context of Bundeswehr Reform: Exogenous ‘Shock’ or Policy-Oriented Learning? 69 3.1 The Bundeswehr in the Cold War Period: A Policy Monopoly in a Framework of Adverserial Politics 70 3.2 Military Intervention and Crisis Management: The Reconfiguration of Advocacy Coalitions and a Changing Policy Narrative 77 3.3 The Post-Cold War World 82 3.3.1 German Unification 82 3.3.2 US Hyper Power and NATO Crisis 85 3.3.3 New Security Challenges 89 3.4 Conclusions 91 Chapter 4: Policy Leadership on Bundeswehr Reform during the Kohl Chancellorship 94 4.1 From the Gulf War to Sarajevo: Helmut Kohl as a Policy Leader 95 4.2 Volker Rühe as Policy Entrepreneur and Broker, 1992-94: Developing the Crisis Intervention Role of the Bundeswehr 105 4.3 Rühe as Policy Broker and Veto Player, 1994-98: The Structure of the Bundeswehr and the Politics of Base Closures 120 4.4 Policy Change Agents: Kinkel, the Foreign Ministry, the FDP and the Greens 134 4.5 Adapting to Rühe: The SPD and the deferral of Bundeswehr Reform 139 4.6 Conclusions 150 Chapter 5: Policy Leadership on Bundeswehr Reform during the Schroder Chancellorship, 1998-2002 156 5.1 The Weizsacker Commission as a Professional Forum 157 5.2 Marginalising the Weizsacker Commission: The Politics of Base Closures 168 5.3 Rudolf Scharping as Policy Leader: The Strategic Context of Bundeswehr Reform 189 5.4 Conclusions 210 Chapter 6: Bundeswehr Reform and Strengthening the Common European Security and Defence Policy: Between Atlanticisation And Europeanisation 215 6.1 The Defence Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and CESDP 216 6.2 Europeanisation: Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches 223 6.3 Europeanisation of German Defence and Security Policy 231 6.4 The EU and German Defence and Security Policy under the Kohl Chancellorship 236 6.5 Fischer, Scharping and the Europeanisation of German Defence and Security Policy: The Legacy of Opposition 253 6.6 The Effects of CESDP on the Bundeswehr: The Weizsacker Commission as Agent of Europeanisation 263 6.7 CESDP and the Problem of InstitutionalCredibility: Europeanisation vs. Atlanticisation in the Defence Ministry 268 6.8 Conclusions 275 Chapter 7 : Conclusions 278 7.1 Main Findings 278 7.2 The Value of this Research 290 7.3 The Implications for Public Policy Theory, the Study of Policy Leadership and Europeanisation 291 Appendix: Principal Interviews 299 Bibliography 302 Documents 335 CD-ROM Material 338 Internet Sources 338 Newspaper Articles 338 Acknowledgements Numerous people have been very generous and helpful to me during the research for and writing up of this thesis. Many officials, politicians and policy experts have discussed German defence and security policy with me over the last four years. I have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of time given to me and the information many have divulged. A number of people have also taken the time to discuss ideas and comment on drafts of my thesis, including Stephan Boeckenforde, Alrun Deutschmann, Vessilin Dimitrov, Kenneth Dyson, Jonathan Grix, Adrian Hyde-Price, Werner Jann, Klaus Larres, Claudio Radaelli, Thomas Risse and Graham Timmins. I would like to thank my PhD supervisors, Klaus Goetz and William Wallace for their invaluable support and encouragement. I would also like to express my gratitude to the staff and students of the Government Department of the London School of Economics for helping fashion such a collegial research environment. I am very grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for my PhD scholarship and the Deutsche Academische Austausch Dienst (DAAD) for granting me a short-term research scholarship form January-March 2004. Several institutions provided crucial support during my fieldwork. I would like to thank the staff of the SPD Archive at the Willy Brandt House who made me feel very welcome and whose helpfulness has made a significant contribution to the empirical richness of this thesis. I would also like to thank Margit Hellwig-Botte and Axel Schneider of the SPD, Michael Alvarez of the Heinrich Boll Stiftung and Thomas Schiller of the CDU/CSU for their help upon my arrival in Berlin by putting me in contact with so many interesting interview partners. I am also very grateful for the opportunity given to me by Werner Jann of Potsdam University to base my DAAD research grant at the Department of Political Science at Potsdam which was a very stimulating environment from which to conduct my research. 8 My family has provided fantastic support. I owe a special debt to my parents, Ann and Kenneth Dyson and brother Charles who have encouraged me throughout my studies and have been an unfailing source of support, inspiration and love. Charles has always been there for me and has helped me keep a healthy sense of perspective about my work, something absolutely vital during a PhD. My thanks also to my Grandmothers, Freda Dyson and Emily Holmes for their encouragement and support during the thesis. Denitza Kostadinova has given me exceptionally generous and unstinting support, both emotional and practical, during my thesis. Thank you for your patience, love and kindness. I am also very grateful to Babken Babajanian and James Cook for their support and invaluable friendship. List of Tables and Figures Figure 2.1 The Structure of the Defence Ministry 52 Table 4.1 Principal German Contributions to UN Peacekeeping Operations, 1990-98 107 Table 4.2 German Defence Spending 1991-2002 125 Table 5.1 The Recommendations of the Weizsacker Commission on Conscription 165 Table 5.2 Basic Positions of the German Political Parties on Bundeswehr Reform 173 Table 5.3 Rudolf Scharping’s Reform Concept 175 Figure 5.4: Gesellschaft fur Entwicklung, Beschaffung und Betrieb (GEBB), Pilotprojekte Bundeswehr (Council for Development, Procurement and Enterprise: Pilot-Project Bundeswehr) 176 10 Chapter 1: The Theoretical Approach 1.1 Introduction This thesis examines of the role of policy leadership in German defence and security policy using the case study of Bundeswehr reform (1990-2002) to explore five analytical perspectives about policy change originating from public policy theory, arguing that public policy theory has underestimated policy leadership and failed to discriminate different leadership roles, styles and strategies. The research also seeks to improve upon what is identified as a dominant constructivist approach to German defence and security policy by developing an interactionist approach, stressing the dialectical interaction between policy skills and strategic context. Hence the thesis will attempt to make original conceptual and empirical contributions to several fields of study within political science - to theoretical work on German defence and security policy, public policy theory, leadership studies and Europeanisation.