Germany's military to take on global role

Germany will today adopt the most radical restructuring of its military since 1945, turning the Bundeswehr into an international intervention force, according to an internal cabinet strategy paper obtained by the Financial Times.

The paper, which will be endorsed at a special cabinet meeting in the defence ministry, is the product of a review - the first of its kind since 1994 - begun by Angela Merkel, chancellor, after she won office last November.

It will see Germany's military officially abandon its primary postwar task of defending the country's borders in favour of a more robust role for German troops on international missions.

The military's most sensitive international deployment since the second world war came this month when the German navy took control of patrolling Lebanese waters to stop weapons smugglers.

The military has taken part in other international missions, in Afghanistan and Kosovo, for example, but has largely avoided direct involvement in war zones.

The 133-page strategy paper argues the capacity of the Bundeswehr must be expanded to allow for the deployment of a total of 14,000 troops to five international missions simultaneously. This will be achieved by drawing troops previously deployed on national defence into units involved in staffing or supporting overseas missions.

The Bundeswehr has about 250,000 military personnel, including about 50,000 conscripts. About 9,000 troops are overseas in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Congo and elsewhere. Germany spends about €24bn on defence, some 9 per cent of the federal budget.

The paperconfirms conscription will be retained. "The Bundeswehr is to be thoroughly restructured into an intervention force," the paper says, with its "most likely tasks" centred on crisis prevention and peacekeeping, intervention into conflict zones and "the fight against international terrorism".

Benjamin Schreer, security analyst at Berlin's SWP foreign affairs think-tank, said the document - German security policy and the future of the Bundeswehr - showed how far Berlin had adapted to the increasing demands of Nato and European Union partners.

"This process is accelerating. Germany is using the same language and defining the same threats as its partners," he said.

The paper argues that "weapons of mass destruction . . . are increasingly becoming a potential threat, also for Germany".

Henning Riecke, European security specialist at Berlin's DGAP foreign policy institute, said the paper would "give German policymakers a way of handling increasing pressure to join overseas missions".

Germany has been under pressure to move some of its troops in Afghanistan from the relatively peaceful northern region to the conflict zone in the south.

Franz Josef Jung, German defence minister, has argued Nato is "very happy" with Germany's role in Afghanistan.