Recent years have seen a remarkable uptick in German nuclear debates – even before Russia’s renewed aggression against Ukraine. The spectrum of potential political options discussed ranges from a Europeanized version of the French deterrent to the withdrawal of U.S. nuclear weapons from Germany to Berlin acceding to the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). So far, consecutive German governments have resisted all calls for change while clinging to a disintegrating status quo. Meanwhile, Europe’s security is undergoing a number of fundamental changes – not least due to the war in Ukraine. Germany’s love for the status quo is increasingly at odds with changing political realities, including in the nuclear domain. Its consequences will affect Germany and the whole continent. It is time for a comprehensive look at on the various effects of change on Germany in the nuclear domain.
Against that background, IFSH has now received a 100,000 US Dollar introductory grant from the Stanton Foundation for a research project on “Germany and the Politics of Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century: Resisting Change?” Under the two-year grant (2022-2024), IFSH researchers Dr. Ulrich Kühn and Marina Favaro will assemble a group of internationally renowned scholars who will take a comprehensive look at Germany’s nuclear weapons policies in the 21st Century in order to assess how significant changes at the international level interact with German status quo policies. Their views will be collected in an edited volume, which is slated for publication in late 2023.
“I am thrilled to partner with the Stanton Foundation on such an important and timely topic, which is crucial for European and global nuclear security,” said Ulrich Kühn, Head of the Research Area on Arms Control and Emerging Technologies at IFSH. “We are extremely grateful to the Stanton Foundation to receive this grant, which comes at a time of mounting insecurities in Europe, including in the nuclear domain.”
“The Stanton Foundation believes that IFSH’s proposed book project will make a major contribution to the nuclear security discussion in Germany and Europe as a whole. Awarding IFSH Hamburg with this introductory grant is also an acknowledgement of the great work that Dr. Kühn and his team have done in the nuclear realm in recent years,” said Erica Carere, Program Officer at the Stanton Foundation.
The Stanton Foundation is a U.S.-based private foundation established by Frank Stanton, a longtime president of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and an advisor to President Eisenhower on nuclear issues in the 1950s. One of its main focuses is to support policy research in international security, with a particular emphasis on nuclear security.