Germany’s African Policy
By Ron Fraser
March 10, 2006
Since the united Germany’s first foreign-policy decision began to split the
Balkan Peninsula apart in 1991, the European Union has tacitly endorsed
German hegemony extending steadily south, across the Mediterranean and into
Africa.
It’s the classic domino theory in action. During the early years of the Cold
War, the West’s greatest fear was that communism would spread south from
Russia and China, gradually gobbling up greater Asia, nation by nation, in a
steady sweep south clear down to the South Pacific Ocean. The fear of this
domino theory actually becoming a reality, with Asian nations falling, one by
one, before the southward sweeping communist wave, drove the United States
and its allies to war in Korea and Vietnam.
It now seems that our collective memory of history is so brief and fleeting
that we cannot see the domino theory actually being put to practice before
our very eyes, this time in the northern hemisphere. Consider.
Back before November 1989, Germany was a divided nation. That’s the way the
victors in World War ii liked it. But by the last decade of the 1990s, the
generation that really understood the historic reason why they preferred a
divided Germany to one that is united, had all but died out. Come Nov. 9,
1989, the Berlin Wall toppled, and by Oct. 3, 1990, Germany was officially
declared a united nation once again, a status that it had not enjoyed since the
Allies marched into Berlin back in 1945. The very next year, the government
of the newly united Germany enacted its first foreign-policy initiative: In
December 1991 it officially recognized the secession of Croatia and Slovenia
from greater Yugoslavia.
In time to come, if it is not yet generally recognized, the world will
eventually realize that was Germany’s first tactical move in the great game of
geopolitical dominos that has continued to this day, steadily advancing German
hegemony south and east. And the game is not yet even half over. It
progresses, with deliberate thought and intent of the military strategists, yet with
often public protestations from German politicians and commentators as
Germany is being “drawn into” peace-monitoring missions from the Balkans to Africa
and beyond.
Most of the strategists who drew up the brilliant blueprint for the rise of
Germany’s Fourth Reich are dead and buried. But they were the mentors of a
second wave of bureaucrats, businessmen, policy formulators, administrators
and especially military hierarchy who are eminent leaders in today’s Germany.
And Germany is now stirring.
Having finally done penance for its past slaughterous ways, Germany has been
encouraged in recent times, both by chancellors and popes, to have done with
the past and move on to better things. Germany is starting to take on a
fresh glow.
There is a combination of forces—a fresh face at the helm in the form of
Angela “she can do no wrong” Merkel; refreshing news on its economy; the
prestige of winning the medal count at this year’s Winter Olympics; the prospect of
playing host to the soccer World Cup in June; having friendly Austria in the
chair as current president of the European Union—coalescing to make 2006
Germany’s year. As all this hoopla possesses the mass media, few see another
prospect looming in Germany’s favor in its true geopolitical—and military—
context. The year 2006 could go down as the marker in history that found Germany
consolidating its penetration of the great continent to its south: Africa.
Think on how the dominos have fallen south and east in Germany’s favor
since the Berlin Wall came down.
nato, under U.S. leadership, fought the Balkan war that Germany’s first
move in this great game started. But, when it came to establish the ongoing
maintenance of “peace,” who got the job in the key areas? Check Bosnia. Check
Kosovo. Germany is entrenched now in both.
Germany readily acquiesced to sending 4,000 troops to Afghanistan after the
U.S. and its allies had secured the country in the war against the Taliban.
Germany remains entrenched in Afghanistan, a seemingly controllable
situation, with close access to oil resources and the opportunity to influence the
burgeoning illegal drug trade at its source. Yet Germany cleverly avoided
becoming enmeshed in the increasingly uncontrollable mess in Iraq.
When the EU was called upon to run security patrols in the Mediterranean for
a limited time, it was Germany that stepped up to the plate. The time limit
on its original assignment came and went. It is still there, entrenched in
the Med.
Security was weak in the Horn of Africa. Who should step into the breach in
that vitally strategic sea gate but the German Navy. It remains there to this
day.
Feeling its oats, Germany introduced the crisis in Darfur, northeastern
Africa, in 2004 to the United Nations Security Council during its period
holding the presidency. It has had troops there ever since.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana this week indicated that the EU will
step up its German-led mission in Darfur by the addition of more troops.
Darfur is in oil-rich Sudan. Germany has an increasing military presence both
on land in that nation and at sea in the crucial access to the oil transit
gateway of the Gulf of Aden. Keep in mind that Germany is anxious to gain
access to alternative energy sources after its main supplier, Russia, temporarily
turned off the tap in the midst of winter.
Now there’s the Democratic Republic of the Congo, hitting the news this week
with indications that Germany is agreeing “reluctantly” to place troops on
the ground in yet another resource-rich, strategic location further south
than Sudan, in central Africa.
Thus the dominos fall. But the danger is perceived by so few, for aren’t
these just peace-keeping missions? But the point is, we have yet to witness a
German withdrawal from any of these regions into which Germany has sent its
troops! Fact is, when the domino falls to Germany, it is in there to stay!
That’s the history and the currency of the situation.
But note, the dominos fall in a pattern—south and east. What’s the
significance of this?
But it all started when a wall came down in Europe and a powerful nation
began rising up one more time to stretch its influence south and east—Germany’
s grand Africa strategy.
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