Armament and Transatlantic Relationships: The German Perspective

Germany currently has a conflicted view of both transatlantic relations and of armaments policy. Whereas the US is seen as the cornerstone of European security, policy-makers in Berlin are hedging against the possibility that the US might lower its commitment to European security. Germany supports the Europeanisation of its defence industrial base, in close partnership with France, but pursues different priorities on arms exports and to a degree also with regards to third party access to PESCO and the EDF compared to Paris. Recent US interventions in the debate about closer European defence collaboration were criticised in Germany as overblown…