Category: Security policy

#me understand: Federal Police Sea: From 40 mm to 57 mm

#me understand: Federal Police Sea: From 40 mm to 57 mm

Gepostet von | 27 Jun 2018 | , , | 6

How times change! In the days of the East-West confrontation, the seagoing units of the Federal Border Guard had eight boats in the Baltic Sea that were equipped with 40 mm guns. In the event of a conflict, they were to be transferred from the Baltic Sea to the German Bight to escort incoming Atlantic convoys on the final stretch. The end of the Cold War and the need for the peace dividend led to the Federal Police Sea being "demilitarised": The 40 mm Bofors were disarmed. In the context of increasing international missions and the maritime fight against terrorism and piracy, the question arises time and again as to whether the...

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1TP5Understanding the sea: China's Silk Road Initiative - An Opportunity?

Gepostet von | 20 Sep 2017 | , , | 17

At the beginning of September, the special edition "griephan Edition 2017" - produced by griephan in cooperation with the Federation of German Industries (BDI) - was published with the theme "The challenge of global trade - setting standards creates markets". The issue includes articles on China's Silk Road Initiative, the G20's protectionist reflexes, free trade as an expression of free societies and the Port of Duisburg, the current starting and finishing point of the Silk Road. The Silk Road Initiative, consisting of the continental "Silk Road Economic Belt" and the "Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century", is Beijing's geostrategic concept to link Africa, Asia and Europe and the seas that connect them for trade. The Chinese approach can be described as "strategic synchronisation", meaning the integrated use of diplomatic, economic policy and military strategy instruments. The principle of "flag follows trade" applies here, meaning that the Chinese military initially plays a subordinate role, for example by participating in stabilisation missions at important hubs such as Djibouti. In Germany, the first question to ask is whether participation in strategic cooperation with China has been neglected for too long. It has become clear that China has taken the strategic initiative into its own hands and is successfully setting the agenda. The current Silk Road initiative has the potential to shift the existing balance of power and create long-term dependencies. However, this realisation should not lead to a fundamental defensive reaction. Anyone who opposes the Silk Road initiative for national or even...

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#me understand: Norway relies on Germany again for submarines

Gepostet von | 6 Feb 2017 | , , | 12

A guest article by Raimund Wallner On 3 February 2017, the Norwegian government announced that Germany, and not France, had been selected as the strategic partner for the submarine project to ensure the succession of the ULA class. The aim of the decision was the joint procurement and "lifetime management" of identical new submarines based on the German Class 212A, according to the statement from the Ministry of Defence. The following bilateral negotiations with the aim of reaching an intergovernmental agreement will focus on determining the proportionate involvement of the respective national defence industries for the four Norwegian and two German boats to be delivered in the second half of the 2020s, reaching agreements on cooperation between the navies and official bodies of both countries and defining Germany's role as the "lead nation". Only then will negotiations with the Kiel-based submarine shipyard tkMS begin in order to finalise the technical and financial aspects of the winning bid against the state-owned DCNS shipyard to such an extent that the construction contract can be concluded in 2019. Before then - next spring - the government intends to present "the New Submarines Investment Project" to parliament "as a strategic capability", which presumably means it will be included in the defence budget. Immediately after the news broke, the DCNS, which was victorious against the Germans in Australia in April 2016, wrote in a press release that it regrets but respects the sovereign decision and is prepared to re-engage if the German-Norwegian negotiations fail. It is also convinced that...

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1TP5Understanding the sea: Sea Blindness - How to spin a maritime narrative thread

1TP5Understanding the sea: Sea Blindness - How to spin a maritime narrative thread

Gepostet von | 16 Dec 2016 | , , | 2

by Patrick Mundstock, the winner of our essay competition: More than 95 per cent of global international trade passes through the world's seas and oceans. Every year, around 47,000 merchant ships from all over the world travel on them, transporting around seven billion tonnes of goods, and the trend is rising. Ever bigger, ever faster and ever more is the motto of the shipping companies. The harbours are becoming more gigantic and the volume of trade is growing every year. This means that the prosperity of almost every economically active nation is particularly dependent on maritime security policy. And yet maritime security is facing such far-reaching problems that even international organisations are now focusing on it.

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1TP5Understanding the sea: New US study on undersea warfare in Northern Europe

Gepostet von | 19 Aug 2016 | , , | 27

In July 2016, the renowned "Center for Strategic International Studies" (CSIS) in Washington D.C., founded by Admiral Arleigh Burke, published the study "Undersea Warfare in Northern Europe". Downloading and reading the almost 50-page work is well worth the time. In the acknowledgements, the attentive reader learns that "experts from Finland, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States" and their respective national institutes contributed significantly to the results. A final thank you is dedicated to the sponsor of the study, "Saab North America", and the authors express their deep appreciation for Saab's respect for [the team's] intellectual independence. This blog entry is not intended to be a review of the study, but rather to highlight some aspects of relevance to Germany's undersea warfare capability and place them in the context of today's German Navy. Any shortcomings in knowledge - if they are recognisable - are due to the distance of the retired author. A translation of the "Executive Summary" gives the hurried reader the gist of the work: "Russia is expanding its underwater operations as part of a broader strategy of coercion against its neighbours, NATO and the United States. Russia has a long history of expanding its maritime capabilities for strategic signalling purposes, including the use of targeted provocations. Suspected intrusions into territorial waters in the Baltic Sea and provocative operations in the North Atlantic have caused alarm among NATO and partner nations, especially as they have made it clear that Russia is in...

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