To the question of the outline of the structural reform of modern armed forces: the example of Germany

Abstract

In the XXI^th century armed forces of world countries` face the need to counter the sharply increased range of security threats. The growing number of them are untraditional (have non-military character) and projected from distant regions. An effective answer can be found only by the structural reform of armed forces. During the XX<sup>th</sup> century the key direction of armed forces` structural reforms was the creation the new (technical) kinds of troops. In the XXI^th century structural reform has another key direction, that is the creation of interspecific groupings of troops. Each of them should have its own geographical (near or far from the national borders) and functional (the types of security threats) zone of responsibility. The goal of the article is to explore the realization of the scheme of armed forces` structural reforms on the example of the Bundeswehr. The reason of the choice of Germany is its unique position as the only emerging power among Euro-Atlantic member states. The article explores the features and «narrow places» of the creation by Germany of scheme of perspective armed forces` creation and its realization from 1990-s until mid 2010-s. The author covers the results of the creation of general forces and forces of crisis management in the key kinds of troops (land, naval, air). The article shows the change of trajectory of the Bundeswehr`s development since the second half of 2010-s in the context of long-term plans aimed at the ending of the structural reform. In the conclusion the author shows the importance of the armed forces` institutional reforms for the stats as the whole and Germany and the features of the dynamics of this process for the Bundeswehr.