Publisher's Synopsis
This book was written in the middle of a revolution. No countries will be more effected by the revolutions of 1989 than the two Germanies. Much will change, especially in its security policies and structures, as the reference in the title to German rather that West German indicates. This book hopes to provide a basis for understanding the context in which these momentous changes will occur.;The 1980s were a watershed decade filled with precursors of a new Europe and a new Germany. This study looks at the changes which occurred in the West German strategic culture and at the transformation of the politics of defence which took place during that decisive decade. It opens with an examination of the fundamentals of the politics and strategic culture of West German security policy before the 1980s and then looks at how public opinion and the parties changes as a result of the Euromissile and other controversies of the decade. It closes with a look at the implications of German unification for the new security policies and structures of the 1990s.;This is a book about defence broadly defined. It looks at security policy in the way that Germans regard it, encompassing politics, culture, economics and broad aspects of foreign policy. Its main purpose is to relate the changes in the politics of defence which occurred over the past decade to changes in the political strategic cultures, focusing on the debates within the political parties which reflected and helped to shape the new politics of defence.
