Signaling, sociology, and structure: Designing military institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949--1999

At the most basic level, this dissertation is about national security decision-making and the organizational design of the armed forces. More specifically, the project is a longitudinal analysis of three episodes of military institutional design and restructuring in the Federal Republic of Germany after World War II: case #1 1949--1956, case #2, 1967--1975, and case #3, 1994--1999. Building on the theoretical concepts of two-level games, signaling and "managed identity formation," I develop a theoretical framework that links variables and pressures from both the international and domestic levels of analysis. The dissertation bridges three fields within political science: international relations, comparative politics and German area studies. Also, the investigation contributes to the sub-discipline of civil-military relations and the literature on the role of the military in the transition to democracy.; Succinctly, I argue that German decision-makers designed their country's military institutions in order to not only respond to core security needs but also in a manner that enabled the Bundeswehr to act both as a signaling mechanism as well as promote various social and political (non-military) goals. While the content of the signal or message changed from case to case as did the focus of the non-military goals, German political leaders and defense planners sought to employ the organizational structure of the armed forces as part of their broader strategy of political rehabilitation and the promotion of democracy and European integration. With reference to non-military goals, in essence, the Bundeswehr was first configured to contribute to the creation of civil-society domestically and later to act as a "school for Western Europe." In terms of signaling, West German armed forces was consciously structured in a unique and often contradictory manner in order to signal to both domestic and international audiences that the new democratic Federal Republic would be both trustworthy and "responsible." In this regard, Bonn utilized the military in its efforts to distance itself from its "rogue" past and once again reclaim political, economic and moral leadership of Western Europe. Finally, the theoretical framework developed in this dissertation addresses the question of how decision-makers designed the German armed forces so that it could simultaneously defend the fledgling democracy while actively contributing to the consolidation of the democratic political system.