Germany’s NSS highlights divisions over strategy

Significance

The NSS provides a comprehensive analysis of German security interests following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but fails to develop a clear roadmap for German security policy going forward. Deep divisions remain among the coalition partners on how to tackle key challenges, while the NSS ignores difficult funding choices and lacks mechanisms to facilitate implementation.

Impacts

• Every new government will be bound to revisit the fundamentals of the NSS and issue its own strategy.
• The NSS will commit the army to a new mission focused on territorial and collective defence, and an expanded presence in allied countries.
• There is little mention of new arenas of geopolitical competition, such as the Arctic, Antarctic, deep sea and space.