Impact of the NSA Affair on German-American Partnership - Coursework Example

Impact of the NSA Affair on German-American Partnership The 21st century has been defined greatly by the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence of nation states. Prevailing circumstances have compelled countries to strike agreements on policy issues, both at regional and global levels to minimize confrontations. One of the most daunting undertakings has been reaching consensus on complex global issues such as trade, development and climate change, all of which generate significant tensions and controversies. Countries often pursue certain goals and specific interests unique to their situations; with limited resources in the global community, every nation strives to achieve a strategic geopolitical advantage over others. Consequently, governments are bound to disagree on key policy issues, which often degenerates to crises and conflicts that strain bilateral relations between nations. Evidently, crises and conflicts have been prevalent in the global community for as long as there has been countries with different interests and shared resources1. This has necessitated the cooperation of nations in international crisis management, to mitigate the ensuing global crises and conflicts that often result to stand-offs between nations. Together with other nations, the United States and Germany have cooperated in crisis and conflict management throughout the world, thereby maintaining order in the global community2. However, the US’s relations with global powers have been strained since 2004, when it was revealed that the US National Security Agency (NSA) was spying on other nations, allies and foes included3. Revelations that Germany is one of the nations being closely monitored by the NSA have soured bilateral relations between the two powers, and attitudes of Germans towards the United States. In the context of these events, this paper seeks to explore the extent to which the NSA affair has affected the German-American partnership in international crisis management. The US has often been considered to be one of Germany’s closest allies and partners beyond the European Union (EU). The German-American relations date back to the post WWII era, when the US offered both economic and political support to West Germany. The United States also played a critical role in the national reunification of Germany, in addition to being a guarantor of freedom in the decades following the cold War. Germany and the United States have maintained close friendship ties lasting for many years until now. Historically, the US and Germany have had shared experiences, values and interests, that have cemented their bilateral relations over time4. For instance, both the US and Germany romanticize free, open and democratic societies, and the respect for individual human rights. Besides that, the two countries conjointly pursue and promote the goals of free trade, prosperity and sustainable global development across the global society. The Transatlantic security community NATO, which is of critical strategic importance to Germany, has been a fundamental pillar of the US-German bilateral relations. Evidently, German has been the greatest beneficiary of the German-American partnership and friendship5. Cooperation on global security policy matters has been the central focus of the age-long partnership between these two countries. The US and Germany have partnered on many other issues in the past, key among them being issues of global security, and trade; presently, one of the greatest concerns bedevilling this partnership is the issue of international terrorism, which seriously threatens global peace initiatives. Furthermore, the two countries are spearheading international crisis and conflict management initiatives around the world, together with other nations. Lately, the US-Germany partnership on international crisis and conflict management has been very critical to maintaining stability in the Balkans, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. The two countries have contributed to international crisis and conflict management through numerous approaches such as diplomatic, and in some cases through military arrangements. The US-German bilateral relations have further been shaped by the continued strengthening of economic cooperation and the continuing dialogue on the protection of the integrity of data and online privacy. The focus of these talks has been on the adoption of mechanisms that will promote security without necessarily compromising online freedom in today’s digital world. German and the US are also brought together by the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) ongoing negotiations between the US and the EU6; this partnership holds great promise for German in terms of economic growth potential. In the wake of the allegations of the NSA scandal in 2013, it emerged that the US was undertaking large-scale surveillance operations abroad; NSA surveillance in the EU territories closely targeted Germany. The NSA was tapping nearly 500 million private communications on cell phones, emails and text messages at the end of 2012 and 2013; further leaks showed that apart from spying on the Germans, the NSA surveillance had also bugged the telephone of the German leaders7. For instance, the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had been targeted since 2002 and the surveillance was also eavesdropping on the current Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel. The revelation that Chancellor Merkel’s telephone had been tapped raised the greatest controversy and uproar among German politicians. Later revelations that the German and American security services were working in close cooperation only seemed to infuriate the German politicians even further8. By eavesdropping on the Germans, the US was acting by legal agreements mandating cooperation between the German and American security services, which date back to the 1960s. The North-Atlantic Treaty includes a provision for the assignment of military personnel, which was agreed upon in 1963; moreover, administrative agreements and other laws signed in 1968 limit confidentiality of post and telecommunications. These provisions entitle the US intelligence services the use of data collected by German security Service Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and to undertake their own surveillance operations. In the context of these legal provisions, the German security service has been sharing data collected with the American security system while permitting their surveillance activities in the country. In the aftermath of these revelations, the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced annulment of the administrative pact that limits privacy of post and telecommunications with allied nations including the US and UK. However, this action merely marked the rejection of a law that was already an artefact of an outdated era rather than the actual termination of the German-American cooperation on intelligence. In that respect, the German-American cooperation is still governed by other legal provisions regulating the German and American security services. The Berlin government has been pushing for changes in the existing legal framework of the German-American cooperation on intelligence. The present legal framework may have facilitated close cooperation between the two countries but does not include a prohibition on mutual surveillance. Germany wants to renegotiate the cooperation agreements, by signing two new agreements, a transnational agreement and an agreement between the German and American security services. These two agreements will override the current regulations to regulate the German-American security service cooperation while limiting the range of American security services in Germany. The intergovernmental agreement that Germany is seeking to sign will prohibit the two governments from spying on each other and the bugging of both heads of states of the two countries. Under these provisions, German will be entitled to the same protections guaranteed to the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in the Five Eyes agreements, which were signed in late 1940s9. The Five Eyes agreements regulate intelligence sharing and forbid mutual espionage among the five countries. Given the urgency of the matter and high priority of the intergovernmental agreement, Chancellor Markel has appointed her advisor on foreign policy, Christoph Heusgen, to spearhead the negotiations. In the ongoing negotiations, the US is against Germany’s push to be excluded from wiretapping because it does not wish to set a precedent for parallel requests from other allied countries. If the US maintains its stand with respect to the lawful exclusion of monitoring, the ongoing US surveillance in German will continue in spite of Germany’s objections. Nevertheless, German is keen on maintaining the German-American cooperation on intelligence because it is critical for the security of its citizens and the Bundeswehr troops in foreign missions abroad10. The US’s advanced cyber security infrastructure and capacity is of critical importance to Germany because the German intelligence agencies are highly dependent on the American intelligence capacity. The NSA scandal has exposed Germany’s cyber security loopholes thereby awakening debates regarding the need to reinforce Germany’s cybernetic competence and levels of preparedness to deal with cyber-attacks. Germany is faced with the challenge of expanding the cybernetic capability of its security service in the wake of the NSA scandal; previous attempts to strengthen German security services have been unsuccessful due to a host of factors. Principally, such an undertaking calls for increased funding for research and development of technology as well as capacity building. Consequently, Germany has often been hesitant to combine and concentrate the intelligence and investigative capabilities of German security services. However, in the context of the NSA scandal, it is possible that public opinion will shift in favour of strengthening German security services by increasing their competencies, to limit reliance on the US intelligence. Strengthening the German intelligence service by extending their competencies may indeed be a brilliant strategy to eliminate reliance on the US for intelligence. However, that option can only be beneficial to Germany in the long term and not now; consequently, Germany has no choice but to rely on the US for intelligence. German security services have been able to avert potential security threats in Germany primarily because of the American intelligence. Moreover, Germany has cooperated with the US with the aim of bolstering its own internal security; in that respect, German has also benefited from intelligence intercepted in other areas. For instance, German security services have been privy to intelligence from key areas of strategic importance to Germany such as Afghanistan, and Pakistan. So far, the NSA scandal is undoubtedly a major blow to the confidence and spirit of cooperation that has defined the US-German relations for so many years11. Nonetheless, Germany still wants to maintain its cooperation with the US because of its technological advantage, which is critical to Germany’s security goals12. Moving forward, German wants to alter the legal foundation for its cooperation with the United States, which was established in the aftermath of the Cold War. Chancellor Markel is obligated to demonstrate leadership by responding effectively to the NSA scandal, to reassert Germany’s pride and reassure public opinion back at home13. However, she cannot do so much until the existing legal agreements are abrogated; unfortunately, the US will not be willing to limit her intelligence capacity by excluding Germany from wiretapping. The two countries mutual interest in the intelligence collected from certain countries such as Afghanistan, and the wide scope of cooperation between the American and German security services makes it hard for Germany to simply walk out of their partnership. In that case, it is highly unlikely that the present NSA scandal will have an important impact on the German-American partnership on crisis management at the moment. Nevertheless, if the US completely refuses to grant Germany’s demands, the NSA scandal will not go away; it return to haunt the American-German bilateral relations forever, thereby leading to mutual suspicion between the two countries14. Overall, the NSA scandal has not had an important impact on the German-American partnership on crisis management so far, because of the extensive scale of cooperation between the security services of the two nations, and their common interest in intelligence from certain countries. This state is likely to persist in the short term, as long as Germany still relies on the US intelligence for critical tactical actions; nevertheless, the situation is likely to change in the future, if Germany succeeds to renegotiate the terms of the cooperation through new agreements. Meanwhile, the NSA scandal has had a serious impact on the bilateral relations between Washington and Berlin as the mutual trust of cooperation that defined their relations has been broken by the emerging revelations. Works Cited “Germans lose trust in US, see NSA whistleblower Snowden as hero – poll.” rt.com. 2014. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. “Multifaceted Partnership, Robust Friendship.” Federal Foreign Office. 2014. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. “Retaliation for Spying: Germany Asks CIA Official to Leave Country.” Spiegel. 2014. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. Barker, Tyson. “Blown Cover: The NSA and the Unraveling US-EU Intelligence Relationship.” Bfna.org. 2013. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. Feldenkirchen, Markus, Hoffmann Christiane and Pfister Rene. “Germanys Choice: Will It Be America or Russia? Spiegel. 2014. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. Frymark, Kamil. “The NSA: the impact of the wiretapping scandal on German-American relations.” Osw.waw.pl. 2013. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. Gross, Eva, Hamilton Daniel, Major Claudia, & Riecke Henning. “Preventing Conflict, Managing Crisis: European and American Perspectives.” swp-berlin.org. 2013. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. Janes, Jackson. “Business as Usual for U.S.-German Relations.” Carnegieeurope. 2013. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. Rother, Stefan. “Strengthening transatlantic ties.” Deutschland. 2014. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. Sanger, David and Smale, Alison. “U.S.-Germany Intelligence Partnership Falters Over Spying. Nytimes. 2013. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. Tomas, Tomaszczyk. “Germany’s role in military crisis management: a selective security provider?”. Sipri.org. 2013. Web. 20th Dec, 2014. Read More