West Germany: Old Questions Posed Anew?

WEST GERMANY: OLD QUESTIONS POSED ANEW? Ronald D. Asmus RiOR t? December of last year, West Germany's political life had been dominated by a single issue: whether to deploy some 572 Pershing II and Tomahawk cruise missiles in accordance with jvato's December 1979 "dual track" decision. Perhaps no issue had aroused such political passion in the Federal Republic of Germany (frg) since the emotional debates of the early 1970s over Ostpolitik. For many outside observers, this test of West German fidelity to the alliance decision—originally motivated by the views of a West German chancellor—had now become the real "German Question." When a special meeting of the Bundestag in late November 1983 officially sanctioned the start of deployment, commentators of all political persuasions were unanimous in stating that it was a key moment in the country's history. In the ensuing months the West German political landscape remained surprisingly calm, much to the relief of Western observers concerned about long-term effects of the emotional euromissile debate upon the West German polity. The "hot autumn" threatened by the strategists of the West German peace movement had come and gone in a remarkably peaceful fashion, leaving few visible traces in its wake. As the first batch of Pershing II missiles led neither to nuclear Armageddon nor an ice age in inter-German relations, the level of public Ronald D. Asmus is senior analyst for German affairs at Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty in Munich. He is currently a research associate at The Johns Hopkins University Institute for Contemporary German Studies, and a Ph.D. candidate at SAIS. 211 212 SAIS REVIEW anxiety soon seemed to subside to manageable proportions. Domestically, the acrimonious debates of the past over euromissiles were replaced by more mundane disputes over a thirty-five-hour workweek and political scandals involving two key ministers in Chancellor Helmut Kohl's cabinet . Similarly, the harsh spotlight of the foreign press seemed to pass over the peace issue, and, instead, refocused on the remarkable course of East-West German relations that, despite the deployment of intermediate-range nuclear forces (inf), not only continued but improved over the spring and summer. However, it is premature to assume that the Zeitgeist of contemporary West German politics has really changed. The start of tjvf deployment may have closed one chapter of a very painful missile debate, but it has not ended a much broader debate over the future contours of West German security policy. Nor has it eliminated those factors that produced such a profound sense of anxiety and unease in recent years. More important, however, the euromissile debate left in its wake at least three changes in the West German polity that will undoubtedly endure. First, the euromissile controversy popularized to an unprecedented degree the problems and issues of Western security policy. Gone are the days when esoteric questions of nuclear deterrence and strategy were the domain of small groups of competing bureaucrats in Bonn and university seminars. Instead, one can now find aspiring security experts in every local parish and disarmament group from the Baltic to the Black Forest—a development that guarantees a high level of public debate for future decisions regarding security policy. Second, the inf debate also contributed to a marked polarization among and within the major West German political parties. The emerging tensions within the West German polity were underscored not only by the mass demonstrations opposing deployment in October 1983 (some of the largest in frg history) but also by the leftward drift of the Social Democratic party (spd) and its overwhelming rejection of a key initiative so closely identified with Helmut Schmidt. Finally, the debate over the Pershing II and cruise missiles catalyzed a much broader discussion about the uneasy future of a divided nation located at the demarcation line between East and West. To those familiar with the frg's early postwar history, the antibomb movement, and the domestic controversies surrounding rearmament and entry into nato, the debate over the future of Germany and its role in Europe, as well as the fjrg's place in the Atlantic Alliance contained more than a touch of déjà vu. The fact that these...