The Democratic Republic of the Congo EUFOR (EUFOR DRC) marks the first German military engagement as a European framework nation in Africa. 2006 saw the publication of a new white paper on the security policy that will replace the preceding Weissbuch zur Sicherheitspolitik that dates back 12 years. In the context of its presidencies of the G8 and the European Union, Berlin will include Africa among its priorities. Now is the time to re-examine the German approach to peace and security in that continent. Berlin is aware of the inescapable need for a common response in the face of the long-term global issues raised by a continent undergoing profound social and demographic changes. Like Paris, it is participating in the definition of concepts designed to implement the European Union’s African Strategy of December 2005. However, as far as the peace and security aspects of this strategy are concerned, some ambiguity in the Franco-German position remains.
Africa as seen by Germany
‘Germany is involving itself, within the limits of its means, in long-term stabilisation missions. This commitment can only be multilateral and must fit into the framework of the EU’s Strategy for Africa. African issues are essential and will be at the heart of the forthcoming German Presidency of the Union. The Federal government can, at the same time, grasp the opportunity of its Presidency of the G8 to associate China and Africa with a United Nations global strategy for Africa.’
Dr A. Schokenhoff, Vice-President of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag
Berlin and Africa: a Gradual Departure from the Insistence on Development
The priorities proclaimed by the Merkel government for the Heiligendamm G8 summit (June 2007) view Africa from the perspective of ‘good governance, stable investment, and peace and security’. The Coalition Contract of November 2005 had already confirmed Germany’s engagement with the continent. For his part, Federal President Horst Köhler, whose function is primarily moral, has launched an initiative for a dialogue between politicians, experts and African and European civil firms entitled Partnerschaft mit Afrika. Through his slogan Afrika ist für uns alle wichtig!,(1) this former Director-General of the IMF is emphasising that the German vision is intended to be global and wide-ranging. In step with the adoption by the Council of the European Union of a Strategy for Africa on 19 December 2005, this approach, which includes a chapter on peace and security, cannot be comprehended without a review of the last half-century.
The Origins of a Special Position
Germany is not without an African tradition but was stripped of its colonies after 1918.(2) At the end of the Second World War, the Federal Republic moved towards a policy of civil cooperation and development aid. Hence, during the Cold War, it left the victors of 1945 to take care of Western security interests in Africa, refraining in particular from interfering in the former French colonies. With German reunification in 1990, Bonn did not wish to endorse activists from an East Germany with privileged links with the South African ANC and the numerous other movements supported by the Soviet camp (in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Guinea). In order to avoid spreading its development aid too thinly, from 1999 Germany recentred its interest on some key countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Ethiopia, while keeping embassies in many African states.
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