German Defense and Security Policy-an Ontological Perspective
[Thesis]
Ellison, Davis Hunter
Moroff, Holger
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2019
51
M.A.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2019
This thesis explains changing rhetorical justifications for German defense and security policy via an ontological security lens. It explores the roles that contested identity narratives play in shaping the public aspects of German policy by examining the cases of ongoing defense budget debates and the interventions/troop deployments in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and the NATO presence in the Baltic states. Through these cases, it is demonstrated that policy is often justified not through appeals to the national interest or commitment to liberal values, but rather through appeals to historical memory and a German responsibility to a variety of interchangeable sub-narratives. As crises arise, various German governments activate and deactivate certain sub-narratives in order to present their response to the crisis in a way that is consistent with the German sense of self, thus demonstrating attempts to maintain ontological security. It also shown that these sub-narratives often come into conflict.