Sicherheit, Sicherheitspolitik und Militaer - Deutschland seit der Vereinigung [Security, security policy and the military - Germany since unification]

摘要

Readers of this journal may ask why they find here a review of a textbook in a series "Basic Knowledge Politics" that has been solely published in German for a course offered by the Distance Learning University of Hagen. Apart from teachers and students of political science, the book's anticipated readers are politicians and people generally interested in politics, but it would be a mistake to assume that it is only of interest to such readers in German-speaking countries. To the contrary, von Bredow's splendid introduction to German approaches to security, security policy and the military should be of much use to German Studies Departments at any university. The book goes some way to explaining the historical, constitutional, political and cultural reasons for the complicated attitudes among st the German public and policy elites towards the use of force and, more widely, the question of what might be considered appropriate means of pursuing security. It has much to say about different approaches to, as well as aims and dynamics of, civil-military relations in modern liberal democracies. And, while it reveals both explicitly and implicitly German perspectives on its themes, it often brings in comparisons with the political and military cultures of other, mainly NATO and EU, countries. This should makes understanding the similarities and differences of Germany's position more accessible to a wider readership.