European Central: Germany Increases Military Spending
Sean Gallup
Breaking from tradition, Germany has increased its military budget to 100 billion euros, over double the 47 billion budget the country had in 2021. This is clearly a direct result from Putin’s invasion in Ukraine and a major shift from Germany’s original plan. Former President Trump repeatedly told NATO members to spend the equivalent of 2 percent of their GDP on their militaries, seemingly much to the annoyance of European Leaders. Behind the scenes, Pentagon Chiefs have been pushing for increased spending from other members for years. Under Former Chancellor Merkel, the plan was to not reach this threshold until 2031. Military spending was expected to rise to 60 million euros in 2024. Now however, Germany is allocating over 3 percent of its GDP towards the military.
This threshold has been criticized on whether or not it is even necessary but a lot of this is due to the long period of peace that existed in Europe. As can be seen however, this changed almost overnight with Putin’s decision to conduct “special military operation” in Ukraine catching the world essentially off guard. The Atlantic Council provides a valid argument that American military spending surpasses that of European members due to it’s role as a global actor it is clear that Europe still needs to spend enough to fend off attacks. The Atlantic Council tried to argue that Germany is legally bound to have a balance budget, yet Germany found 53 billion more to allocate towards the military this year. While countries such as Germany may prefer to spend less on the military and more on other parts of the budget, this is a mute point if the country is invaded. Germany does not need to intervene through military action in other areas of the world such as the Untied States have but it needs to have the capacity of thwarting threats in Europe.
Chancellor Scholz however has caused some divisions within the ruling coalition as the Green Party was caught off guard. The party has been historically against war, although members of the party seem to agree with the Social Democrats that the current situation in Ukraine calls for more military spending. While they both share this view, the leadership of the Green Party seems to suggest that they were not aware of the drastic increase in military spending that Chancellor Scholz had planned.
It is worth noting that the increase in military spending is monumental due to Germany not being trusted to have a large military for decades following the first and second world wars. As a result of the horrors committed during these two wars the size of the German military was restricted. When Germany was reunified in 1991, it was decided by the United States, France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union that Germany’s military would be restricted to 370,000 troops. Germany had 500,000 soldiers meanwhile East Germany had an army of 160,000 soldiers requiring a unified army to shrink significantly by 34 percent. A little over 30 years later however Germany has completely transformed and is viewed as an important guard of democracy in Europe.
A point of contention is whether EU member states, many who are members of NATO should have a unified military rather than national ones. For the most part this will not happen because member states have various views on foreign policy and it would be difficult to make decisions. On the other hand, this would be useful in situations where countries can relatively agree completely such as the importance to defend European members of NATO from an invasion. This is because a unified army would allow countries to spend more wisely, rather than buying duplicate military equipment as is required when every country has their own army. The European Union was found to promote peace in Europe and avoid another World War on the continent making it seem implausible member states would attack each other; however a unified army remains unlikely.
The Germany of today is clearly not the Germany in the first half of the 20th century. Instead a strong German army can be beneficial for Europe particularly when threats arise such as the one in present times. Whether or not people agree on the NATO threshold, it is clear that Europe needs to be ready for defense, which is the point of strengthening Germany’s army. As one of the original founding member of the European Union Germany has made it’s dedication to peace clear in Europe.
