GPPi publishes article on Germany’s abstention on the Libya intervention

In its December 2013 to January 2014 issue, the journal Survival has published an article by GPPi Research Associate Sarah Brockmeier on the German abstention on Security Council resolution 1973, which authorized military intervention in Libya in March 2011.

Based on 23 interviews with politicians, diplomats and German foreign policy experts, Brockmeier traces the final days before the Libya vote in detail. She concludes that Germany’s abstention on UN Security Council resolution 1973 does not signify the end of German commitment to multilateralism or the Western alliance, nor was the decision purely a historical accident.

If Germany’s allies take away one lesson from the abstention, Brockmeier writes, they are well advised to take into account that when it comes to decisions on military interventions, Germany needs time to hold a debate at home.

Brockmeier’s article was shortlisted for Survival’s 2013 Palliser Prize, which awards the best essay submitted for publication in journal on an aspect of European international relations, politics, geo-economics or strategy by an author of any nationality under the age of 40 at the time of submission.