by Adekeye Adebajo
IF FOOTBALL is the continuation of war by other means, then
Germany’s recent World Cup triumph has restored the country to Great Power
status.
The centenary of the start of the First World War this year
recalls the conflict whose aftermath sought to resolve the "German
question" by shrinking its territory and crippling it economically through
the punitive Treaty of Versailles. The weakness of the Weimar Republic led to the rise of Adolf
Hitler and the Second World War. The Bonn Republic after 1945 saw the partition
of Germany, and western Europe’s overriding concern was to keep the Germans
down, the Americans in, and the Russians out. West Germany pulled off a
spectacular Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle), and today’s reunified Berlin
Republic represents Europe’s most powerful and prosperous country.
Germany’s unemployment rate of about 5.4% is less than half
of the European Union (EU) average, it is the paymaster of the EU, and the
largest creditor in the euro currency zone. The Franco-German axis, which
traditionally drove the EU, has now been replaced by the dominance of
Chancellor Angela Merkel. As Germany reviews its foreign policy, it remains an
economic giant and political dwarf, constrained by a past history of aggressive
conquest. Berlin has historically sought to act as a "civilian power"
that relies on multilateral institutions and trade rather than military force,
promoting democratic governance, peaceful conflict resolution and sustainable
development. Its allies have criticised this approach as an abdication of
global responsibility by the world’s fourth-largest economy, and Berlin must
find a way to harness its Friedenspolitik (policy of peace) to an enhanced
political and security role legitimised by multilateral organisations in which
it plays a more active leadership role.
German exports of machine guns, tanks, and submarines expose
the contradictions of this Friedenspolitik. Berlin is now the world’s
third-largest conventional arms exporter after the US and Russia. Germany has
deployed troops to the Balkans and Afghanistan for more than 15 years, though a
strong pacifism still remains among its population. Today, 5,000 German
soldiers serve in 13 missions globally.
Germany’s Africa policy has traditionally been conducted
through the EU, and Berlin’s total bilateral trade with Africa reached €44.9bn
last year. Africa is the world’s fastest-growing continent, with a market of
1-billion consumers. Berlin can reduce its dependence on gas imports from
Russia by importing more from Algeria and Nigeria.
Germany’s own reunification required transferring ore than
$1-trillion to the east. It should, therefore, urgently meet the United Nations
(UN) target of contributing 0.7% of gross domestic product to aid. Berlin has
increased its trade with Asia in the past decade, with Beijing now accounting
for about 38% of total German exports to the region, and Merkel paying her
seventh visit to China this month. Germany has supported Beijing’s leading
trade role in Africa and should help to promote EU policies on the continent
that are not mercantilistically seeking to exclude China.
In 2003 and 2006, France and Germany respectively led EU
forces to support UN peacekeeping efforts in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo. Germany has also provided military trainers to support the present
French intervention in Mali. There appears to be a bargain in which Berlin
backs a French EU leadership role in Africa in exchange for Paris supporting
Germany’s leadership of EU policies in eastern Europe. But Germany must be more
discerning in aligning itself too closely with the increasingly discredited
French military role in Africa. The recent interventions in Mali, Cote
d’Ivoire, and the Central African Republic have, in fact, revived fears of
Gallic neocolonialism in Africa.
As the third-largest contributor to the UN, Germany must
continue to push for reform of a 15-member Security Council that is
increasingly losing its legitimacy. About 60% of the council’s deliberations
focus on Africa, while 75% of the UN’s peacekeepers are deployed on the
continent. Berlin realises that council reform can occur only with the support
of the organisation’s 54 African members. In a council vote in 2011, Germany’s
abstention from the Anglo-French-led intervention in Libya now looks visionary,
as anarchy reigns in the country, having spread its deadly lava across the
Sahel into Mali.
Finally, Germany has Europe’s oldest population, and its
workforce will be reduced by 6.5-million in the next decade. It will thus be
forced to turn to immigration to fill this gap, which could radically alter its
demographics. This is already evident in die Mannschaft that won the football
World Cup in Brazil with four players of Turkish, Polish, Tunisian and Ghanaian
ancestry.
The views expressed here are those of the author and not of ECDPM
Photo Courtesy of the President of the European Council
This article originally appeared in Business Day Live
