Germany’s African Policy        
By Ron  Fraser    

March 10,  2006   
   
Since the united  Germany’s first foreign-policy decision began to split the 
Balkan  Peninsula apart in 1991, the European Union has tacitly endorsed 
German  hegemony extending steadily south, across the Mediterranean and into  
Africa.

It’s the classic  domino theory in action. During the early years of the Cold 
War, the  West’s greatest fear was that communism would spread south from  
Russia and  China, gradually gobbling up  greater Asia, nation by nation, in a  
steady sweep south clear down to the South Pacific  Ocean. The fear of this 
domino  theory actually becoming a reality, with Asian nations falling, one by  
one, before the southward sweeping communist wave, drove the  United  States 
and its allies to war in  Korea and  Vietnam.

It now seems that  our collective memory of history is so brief and fleeting 
that we cannot  see the domino theory actually being put to practice before 
our very eyes,  this time in the northern hemisphere. Consider.

Back before  November 1989, Germany was a divided nation. That’s  the way the 
victors in World War ii liked  it. But by the last decade of the 1990s, the 
generation that really  understood the historic reason why they preferred a 
divided  Germany to one that is united, had  all but died out. Come Nov. 9,  
1989,  the Berlin Wall toppled, and by Oct. 3,  1990,  Germany was officially 
declared a  united nation once again, a status that it had not enjoyed since the  
Allies marched into Berlin back in 1945. The very next  year, the government 
of the newly united  Germany enacted its first  foreign-policy initiative: In 
December 1991 it officially recognized the  secession of Croatia and  Slovenia 
from greater  Yugoslavia.

In time to come, if  it is not yet generally recognized, the world will 
eventually realize that  was Germany’s first tactical move in the  great game of 
geopolitical dominos that has continued to this day,  steadily advancing German 
hegemony south and east. And the  game is not yet even half over. It 
progresses, with deliberate thought and  intent of the military strategists, yet with 
often public protestations  from German politicians and commentators as  
Germany is being “drawn into”  peace-monitoring missions from the Balkans to Africa 
and beyond.

Most of  the strategists who drew up the brilliant blueprint for the rise of  
Germany’s Fourth Reich are dead and  buried. But they were the mentors of a 
second wave of bureaucrats,  businessmen, policy formulators, administrators 
and especially military  hierarchy who are eminent leaders in today’s  Germany. 
And  Germany is now  stirring.

Having finally done penance for its past slaughterous  ways, Germany has been 
encouraged in recent times, both by chancellors and  popes, to have done with 
the past and move on to better things.  Germany is starting to take on a  
fresh glow.

There is a combination of forces—a fresh face at the  helm in the form of 
Angela “she can do no wrong” Merkel; refreshing news  on its economy; the 
prestige of winning the medal count at this year’s  Winter Olympics; the prospect of 
playing host to the soccer World Cup in  June; having friendly Austria in the 
chair as current president of the  European Union—coalescing to make 2006 
Germany’s year. As all this hoopla  possesses the mass media, few see another 
prospect looming in  Germany’s favor in its true  geopolitical—and military—
context. The year 2006 could go down as the  marker in history that found Germany 
consolidating its  penetration of the great continent to its south: Africa.

Think on how the  dominos have fallen south and east in  Germany’s favor 
since the Berlin  Wall came down.

nato, under  U.S. leadership, fought the  Balkan war that Germany’s first 
move in this great  game started. But, when it came to establish the ongoing 
maintenance of  “peace,” who got the job in the key areas? Check  Bosnia. Check 
Kosovo.  Germany is entrenched now in  both.

Germany readily acquiesced to  sending 4,000 troops to Afghanistan after the  
U.S. and its allies had secured  the country in the war against the Taliban.  
Germany remains entrenched in  Afghanistan, a seemingly controllable  
situation, with close access to oil resources and the opportunity to  influence the 
burgeoning illegal drug trade at its source. Yet  Germany cleverly avoided 
becoming  enmeshed in the increasingly uncontrollable mess in  Iraq.

When the EU was  called upon to run security patrols in the Mediterranean for 
a limited time, it was  Germany that stepped up to the  plate. The time limit 
on its original assignment came and went. It is  still there, entrenched in 
the Med.

Security was weak in the Horn  of Africa. Who should step into the breach in 
that vitally strategic sea  gate but the German Navy. It remains there to this 
day.

Feeling its  oats, Germany introduced the crisis in  Darfur, northeastern  
Africa, in 2004 to the United  Nations Security Council during its period 
holding the presidency. It has  had troops there ever since.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana  this week indicated that the EU will 
step up its German-led mission in  Darfur by the addition of more  troops. 
Darfur is in oil-rich  Sudan.  Germany has an increasing military  presence both 
on land in that nation and at sea in the crucial access to  the oil transit 
gateway of the Gulf of  Aden. Keep in mind that  Germany is anxious to gain 
access to  alternative energy sources after its main supplier,  Russia, temporarily 
turned off the tap in the midst of  winter.

Now there’s the Democratic Republic of the  Congo, hitting the news this week 
 with indications that Germany is agreeing “reluctantly” to  place troops on 
the ground in yet another resource-rich, strategic  location further south 
than Sudan, in central  Africa.

Thus the dominos  fall. But the danger is perceived by so few, for aren’t 
these just  peace-keeping missions? But the point is, we have yet to witness a  
German withdrawal from any of these regions into which  Germany has sent its  
troops! Fact  is, when the domino falls to Germany, it is in there to stay!  
That’s the history and the currency of the situation.

But note, the  dominos fall in a pattern—south and east. What’s the 
significance of  this?

But  it all started when a wall came down in Europe and a powerful nation 
began  rising up one more time to stretch its influence south and  east—Germany’
s grand  Africa  strategy.  


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