Rethinking security?!

Armaments and disarmament, military deployments abroad and other highly relevant security and peace policy issues have been largely pushed out of the public debate by the Corona pandemic since the beginning of 2020. But citizens have a right to know the parties’ stance on these issues before the Bundestag elections. After all, the new parliament and the future federal government face important decisions.

We put the following six issues up for discussion:

– Should military spending in the federal budget really be increased to 2% of gross national product by 2024, as the previous federal government plans?

– Should the federal government sign the UN agreement banning nuclear weapons and then also end Germany’s “nuclear participation” in NATO and push through the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear bombs from Germany, which the Bundestag had already called for almost unanimously in 2010?

– Should the Bundeswehr continue to participate in missions abroad? And if so, in which missions and in which not?

– Should Germany continue to supply weapons to the same extent all over the world, including to warring states, to areas of tension and to regimes that use these weapons against their own people?

– What is the meaning of the goal proclaimed so far by almost all parties in the Bundestag that the EU must become “a global player” or achieve “strategic sovereignty”? Should the German government continue to advocate an increasingly military role for the European Union?

– How could the future German government improve Germany’s completely muddled and confrontational relationship with Russia?

Moderator Andreas Zumach will briefly introduce the issues and give the panel an opportunity to respond. Afterwards, we look forward to questions and contributions from the audience.