Abstract
The West German Bundeswehr has not been directly involved in arms control issues until recent years. With strict restrictions on their own armaments after the Second World War, the Germans were more often the subject of arms control initiatives than active players in the negotiations. After its establishment in 1955–6, the Bundeswehr forcused first and foremost on the task of rebuilding an armed forces as part of the NATO integrated command. Arms control issues were left to the United States, only infrequently in consultation with German elected officials or input from the Bundeswehr. This fact has served to emphasize, in earlier years, restrictions on West German sovereignty and, throughout the post-war era, a deference to the United States on arms control issues. It also underlined the primarily political rather than military objectives of many early arms control initiatives.
The views expressed in this chapter are personal and do not necessarily represent those of the United States Government.
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Notes
See e.g. Christian Potyka, ‘Die vernachlaessigte Oeffentlichkeit’, in Klaus-Dieter Schwarz (ed.), Sicherheitspolitik, 2nd ed. (Bad Honnef: Osang, 1976), pp. 381–96.
See several contributions in W. R. Vogt (ed.), Sicherheitspolitik und Streitkraefte in der Legitimitaetskrise (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1983).
See Philip E. Converse, ‘Attitudes and Non-attitudes’, in Edward R. Tufte (ed.), The Quantitative Analysis of Social Problems (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1970), pp. 168–89.
Ralf Zoll, ‘Sicherheitspolitik und Streitkraefte im Spiegel oeffentlicher Meinungen in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Eine vergleichende Analyse’, in Ralf Zoll (ed.), Sicherheit und Militaer (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1982) p. 53.
For earlier results see Hans Rattinger, ‘The Federal Republic of Germany: Much Ado About (Almost) Nothing’, in Gregory Flynn, Hans Rattinger (eds.), The Public and Atlantic Defense (Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld, 1985).
Hans Rattinger and Petra Heinlein, Sicherheitspolitik in der oeffentlichen Meinung: Umfrageergebnisse fuer die Bundesrepublik Deutschland bis zum ‘heissen Herbst’ 1983 (Berlin: Wissenschaftlicher Autoren-Verlag, 1986).
see also Hans Rattinger, ‘Change vs. Continuity in West German Attitudes on National Security and Nuclear Weapons’, Public Opinion Quarterly, 1987.
See e.g. Ekkehard Lippert and Tjarck Roessler, Maedchen unter Waffen? (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1980).
See e.g. Stephen F. Szabo, ‘West Germany: Generations and Changing Security Perspectives’, in Stephen F. Szabo (ed.), The Successor Generation: International Perspectives of Postwar Europeans (London: Butterworths, 1983), pp. 43–75.
see also Harald Mueller and Thomas Risse-Kappen, ‘Origins of Estrangement: The Peace Movement and the Changed Image of America in West Germany’, International Security, 1987, vol. 12, pp. 52–88.
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© 1990 Stephen F. Szabo
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Mattox, G.A. (1990). The Bundeswehr and Arms Control. In: Szabo, S.F. (eds) The Bundeswehr and Western Security. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11032-2_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11032-2_5
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