The Navy and Germany’s New Global Role

With the end of the Cold War, Western navies were liberated from the necessity to be ready to wage major war and became available to deploy as the ‘global arm of a foreign policy that pursued “order” … commercial, humanitarian, and even ideological interests, worldwide.’ This is exactly the type of foreign policy, Germany would come to adopt. It is therefore not surprising that, despite cutting its defence budget, Germany, like other countries, continued to invest substantial resources to maintain a navy in a world in which the sea remains a key factor in the global political order.