Losing the Power of Parliament? Participation of the Bundestag in the Decision-Making Process Concerning Out-of-Area Military Operations

Abstract

The article analyses the role of the German Bundestag in decision making on out-of-area military operations since 1994. It is framed by the research question whether the power of the parliament has been weakened by the building of international rapid reaction forces such as the European Battle Groups or the NATO Response Force. In the first part, the position of the Bundestag in the decisions since 1994 is explained. The second part is mainly focused on the decision-making process pertaining to the 2006 EUFOR operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2006, the German Battle Group was not sent to Congo due to domestic constraints. On the basis of this incident and a more general analysis, the article underlines the crucial role of the Bundestag in the decision-making process. It disputes the claim that the Bundestag is losing its power in favour of the government.

Notes

The research for the article was supported by the Grant Agency of the Charles University in Prague (grant number 257196). A previous version was presented in May 2008 at the 34th Annual IASGP Conference.

For a good overview of the debate see Dieter Wiefelspütz, ‘Auslandseinsätze deutscher Streitkräfte und der Bundestag: Ist eine Reform geboten?’, Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 39/2 (2008), pp.203–19.

Such an argument may be also heard also in a video spot, which is on the Homepage of the German Federal Ministry of Defence introducing the German Participation in the NATO Response Force. A voice is saying (time 3:28): ‘bei zeitkritischen Missionen könnte sich die Politik als Hemmschuh erweisen’, http://www.bmvg.de/fileserving/PortalFiles/C1256F1200608B1B/N268RHS7925MMISDE/6DTHMR054INFODE.asx?yw_repository=youatweb (accessed 20 Dec. 2008).

See ‘CDU will Soldaten schneller entsenden’, Financial Times Deutschland, 24 Jan. 2007.

See Wiefelspütz, ‘Auslandseinsätze deutscher Streitkräfte’, pp.216–17.

Timo Noetzel and Benjamin Schreer, ‘Parlamentsvorbehalt auf dem Prüfstand’, SWP-Aktuell 10 (2007), Berlin: Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Politik, p.1.

Wolfgang Wagner, ‘The Democratic Deficit in the EU's Security and Defense Policy – Why Bother?’, RECON Online Working Paper Nr. 10, http://www.reconproject.eu/main.php/RECON_wp_0710.pdf?fileitem=4866332 (accessed 21 May 2008), pp.5–7.

Giovanna Bono, ‘Challenges of Democratic Oversight of EU Security Policies’, European Security 15/4 (2006), pp.431–49.

Ibid., p.441. For more detail see Giovanna Bono, ‘National Parliaments and EU External Military Operations: Is there any Parliamentary Control?’, European Security 14/2 (2005), pp.203–29.

See Noetzel and Schreer, ‘Parlamentsvorbehalt auf dem Prüfstand’, p.4, or Timo Noetzel and Benjamin Schreer, ‘Vernetzte Kontrolle: zur Zukunft des Parlamentsvorbehalts’, in Stephan Mair (ed.), Auslandseinsätze der Bundeswehr. Leitfragen, Entscheidungsspielräume und Lehren. SWP-Studie 27 (Berlin: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, 2007), pp.35–42, qnoted here pp. 41–2.

Suzanne Schüttemeyer, ‘Deparlamentarisation: How Severely is the German Bundestag Affected? ’, German Politics 18/1 (2009), pp.1–11.

Ibid., p.10.

Sebastian Harnisch, Internationale Politik und Verfassung (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2006).

Wiefelspütz, ‘Auslandseinsätze deutscher Streitkräfte und der Bundestag’, p.219.

See especially Dieter Wiefelspütz, Das Parlamentsheer (Berlin: Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, 2005), Dieter Wiefelspütz, ‘Der konstitutive wehrverfassungsrechtliche Parlamentsbeschluss’, Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 38/1 (2007), pp.3–16, Martin Limpert, Auslandseinsatz der Bundeswehr (Berlin: Duncker und Humblot, 2002) or more generally about juristical aspects of international integration of armed forces Roman Schmidt-Radefeldt, Parlamentarische Kontrolle der internationalen Streitkräfteintegration (Berlin: Duncker und Humblot, 2005).

Nina Philippi, Bundeswehr-Auslandseinsätze als außen- und sicherheitspolitisches Problem des geeinten Deutschland (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1997).

Rafael Biermann, ‘Der Deutsche Bundestag und die Auslandseinsätze der Bundeswehr. Zur Gratwanderung zwischen exekutiver Prärogative und legislativer Mitwirkung’, Zeitschrift fürParlamentsfragen 35/4 (2004), pp.607–26.

Ibid., p.624.

See Federal Ministry of Defence, ‘White Paper 2006 on German Security Policy and the Future of Bundeswehr’, pp.66 and 78, available at http://www.bundeswehr.de/fileserving/PortalFiles/C1256EF40036B05B/W26UYEPW631INFODE/WB2006_oB_sig.pdf.pdf (accessed 8 November 2009).

During the Cold War, the core of military policy was the defence of the territory of the NATO. Thus, military policy (Wehrpolitik) was almost the same as defence policy (Verteidigungspolitik) and can be seen as a part of foreign policy. Moreover, several parts of military policy can be seen as not related to defence and foreign policy (relations to the industry, social affairs in the armed forces and in certain cases also the use of armed forces on German territory). The term security policy is in that time more or less the same as the term defence policy. See Gunther Hellmann, ‘Sicherheitspolitik’, in Siegmar Schmidt, Gunther Hellmann and Reinhard Wolf (eds.), Handbuch zur deutschen Außenpolitik (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007), pp.605–17, quoted here pp.607–9.

See Article 45a of the Basic Law: ‘(1) The Bundestag shall appoint a Committee on Foreign Affairs and Committee on Defence. (2) The Committee on Defence shall also have the power of an investigative committee. On the motion of one quarter of its members it shall have the duty to make specific matter the subject of investigation.’

See Article 45b of the Basic Law: ‘A Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces shall be appointed to safeguard basic rights and to assist the Bundestag in exercising parliamentary control over the Armed Forces. Details shall be regulated by a federal law.’

This article was changed in 1968 into its present form,. Between 1956 and 1968, this principle was settled by the former Article 59a of the Basic Law.

See Article 115a of the Basic Law: ‘Any determination that the federal teritory is under attack by armed forces or imminently threatened with such an attack (state of defense) shall be made by the Bundestag with the consent of the Bundesrat. Such determination shall be made on application of the Federal Government and shall require a two-thirds majority of the Members of the Bundestag.’

Philippi, Bundeswehr-Auslandseinsätze, p.59.

See Kerry Longhurst, Germany and the Use of Force (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004), pp.56–60; or Rainer Baumann and Gunther Hellmann, ‘Germany and the Use of Military Force: Total War, the Culture of Restraint, and the Quest for Normality’, German Politics 10:1 (April 2001), pp.12–15, http://www.soz.uni-frankfurt.de/hellmann/mat/rb-gh-german-politics.pdf (accessed 31 Jan. 2007).

See BVerfGE 90, 286, No.324–50.

BVerfGE 90, 286, No.346.

BVerfGE 90, 286, No.347.

In Figure 1, 22 out of 28 decisions about new out-of-area deployments are listed. The remaining six decisions were either ‘reserve’ mandates, which have never been realised or the roll-call vote was not used and there are thus no records about the votes.

See BVerfGE 90, 286, No.345.

Baumann andHellmann, ‘Germany and the Use of Military Force’, p.16.

See also Harnisch, Internationale Politik und Verfassung, pp.288–90.

For the initial phase of all Kosovo-related operation, up to 8,500 soldiers were appointed. Up to 2,200 German soldiers were in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1995 as a part of the SFOR II operation.

See BT/Drs. 14/1133, p.4.

‘solange ein Mandat des Sicherheitsrats der Vereinten Nationen und ein entsprechender Beschluss des NATO Rats sowie die konstitutive Zustimmung des Deutschen Bundestages vorliegen’. See BT/Drs. 14/3454, p.1.

Limpert, Auslandseinsatz der Bundeswehr, p.72; Florian Schröder, Das parlamentarische Zustimmungsverfahren zum Auslandseinsatz der Bundeswehr in der Praxis (Köln, Berlin, München: Carl Heymanns Verlag, 2005), p.94; Harnisch, Internationale Politik und Verfassung, pp.302–3.

BT-Drs. 14/3550, p.4.

BVerfGE 90, 286, No.346.

With one exception: the EU-led military operation Concordia in Macedonia, taking place from March until November 2003 with participation of 70 German soldiers.

An adoption of a new proposal was requested during the first reading by the Budget Committee of the Bundestag. See BT-Plpr. 14/184, 29 Aug. 2001, p.18190 and BT-Drs, 14/6835, p.4.

BT-Plpr 14/184, 29 Aug. 2001.

For the case of Essential Harvest, see Biermann, ‘Der Deutsche Bundestag und die Auslandseinsätze der Bundeswehr’, p.622.

See BVerfGE 90, 286, No.346.

See Antrag des Bundeskanzlers gemäß Artikel 68 des Grundgesetzes. BT-Drs. 14/7440.

See BT-Plpr. 14/202, 7 Nov. 2001, pp.19897–915.

‘selbstverständlich eine Bundesregierung, die von der Mehrheit des Parlaments gebeten wird, die Soldaten zurückzuholen, sie zurückholen würde.’ BT-Plpr. 14/202, 7 Nov. 2001, p.19866.

‘in bewaffnete Unternehmungen einbezogen sind oder eine Einbeziehung in eine bewaffnete Unternehmung zu erwarten ist’.

See 2 BvE 1/03 vom 7.5.2008, Absatz-Nr. (1-92), http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/es20080507_2bve000103.html (accessed 14 May 2008).

For more detailed analysis see Jan Ryjáček, ‘Der Entscheidungsprozess über den Bundeswehreinsatz zum Schutz der Wahlen im Kongo’, Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen 2 (2008), pp.220–233.

BT-Plpr 16/37, 1 June 2007, p.3259.

Gustav Lindstrom, ‘Enter the EU Battlegroups’, Challiot Paper No.97, Paris: Institute for Security Studies, February 2007, p.20.

‘Bundeswehr soll nicht alleine in den Kongo’, Berliner Zeitung, 19 Jan. 2006, ‘Berlin beurteilt einen Einsatz der Bundeswehr in Kongo skeptisch’, Handelsblatt, 19 Jan. 2006,’Bundeswehr soll an den Kongo’, SZ, 21 Jan. 2006.

David P. Auerswald, Stephen M. Saideman and Michael J. Tierney, ‘Caveat Emptor! National Oversight and Military Operations in Afghanistan’, Paper for the APSA annual meeting, Chicago, September 2007, p.17.

See Noetzel and Schreer, ‘Vernetzte Kontrolle: zur Zukunft des Parlamentsvorbehalts’, p.36.

See Alexander L. George and Andrew Benett, Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005), pp.112–17.

See Wiefelspütz, ‘Auslandseinsätze deutscher Streitkräfte’, p.216.

Markus Kaim, ‘Deutsche Auslandseinsätze in der Multilateralismusfalle?’, in Mair (ed.), Auslandseinsätze der Bundeswehr. Leitfragen, Entscheidungsspielräume und Lehren, pp.42–9.