Alliance case

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The alliance case ( lat. Casus foederis - casus : the case foedus : the Alliance) referred to in the diplomatic language of the term that indicates a situation in which one of a state due to military assistance contract commitment is effective in a war to enter, which the respective alliance partner wages, or to start a war in order to protect this partner.

Legal basis in Germany

The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (GG) provides the option, as with the United Nations and the European Union , to surrender sovereign rights to intergovernmental institutions.

According to Article 24 of the Basic Law, the federation can place itself in a system of mutual collective security in order to maintain peace and thereby consent to the limitations of its sovereign rights in order to bring about and secure a peaceful and lasting order in Europe and between the peoples of the world.

With the alliance case, Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty in conjunction with Article 115a of the Basic Law regulates another possible deployment of the Bundeswehr . The Bundeswehr can also be deployed when a NATO ally is attacked. An obligation to provide assistance can also be derived from Article 42 (7) of the EU Treaty.

Alliance case on the basis of the NATO treaty

In the North Atlantic Treaty, the treaty on NATO , Article 5 describes the alliance as an armed attack with the reaction of the joint exercise of the right of self-defense recognized in Article 51 of the UN Statute . The treaty was developed with the assumption of a possible attack by the Soviet Union on Western Europe ; the fall of the alliance did not occur during the Cold War .

Article 5 of the NATO Treaty reads:

“The parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all; They therefore agree that in the event of such an armed attack each of them shall, in the exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized in Article 51 of the United Nations Constitution , assist the party or parties attacked, by each of them promptly take such measures, including the use of armed force, for itself and in cooperation with the other parties, as it deems necessary to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

The Security Council must be informed immediately of any armed attack and any countermeasures taken as a result. The measures are to be stopped as soon as the Security Council has taken the steps necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security. "

- The North Atlantic Treaty : Washington DC, April 4, 1949

The determination of the alliance case does not trigger any automatism. The Bundestag alone decides on the deployment of German soldiers outside the German borders.

Assistance obligation based on the EU treaty

Article 42 (7) of the EU Treaty reads:

“In the event of an armed attack on the territory of a Member State, the other Member States owe it all assistance and assistance in their power, in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations. This does not affect the specific nature of the security and defense policies of certain Member States.

The commitments and cooperation in this area remain in line with the commitments entered into within the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which continues to be the foundation of their collective defense and the instrument for their implementation for the member states. "

- EU Treaty : Lisbon 2007

terror attacs at the 11th September 2001

For the first and so far only time, the alliance case was proclaimed by the NATO Council on September 12, 2001 in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon , with the restriction: “If the terrorist attacks from outside against the USA were directed «. The alliance case was only decided by the NATO Council on October 4th. Two days earlier, on October 2, the US government had presented evidence to support an armed attack by the Taliban or al-Qaeda on the US.

Consultation in the German Bundestag

The first vote in the Bundestag, concerning Operation Enduring Freedom , linked Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to the vote of confidence because of isolated criticism from the red-green coalition with the announced approval of the CDU / CSU and the FDP , whereupon four Greens, Christa Lörcher (SPD) and the entire opposition opposed he agreed, but the majority agreed with him.

In April 2002 the PDS parliamentary group applied for a declaration that the alliance case was no longer to be regarded as a given. The German Bundestag discussed the motion for printed matter 14/8664 in its 233rd session on April 25, 2002. The motion was referred to the Foreign Affairs Committee (in charge) and to the Legal and Defense Committees for consultation. The application was denied on June 12, 2002.

In December 2013, the Die Linke parliamentary group also submitted a motion for the immediate termination of the NATO alliance case and discussed it with the German Bundestag on printed matter 18/202. As in 2002, the majority of the application was rejected.

NATO consultations

The representatives of the Netherlands, Belgium and Portugal first spoke out against a determination of the alliance case under Article 5. After the attacks in the USA, the Belgian Foreign Minister and then President of the EU Council, Louis Michel , called on people not to abandon the path of political debate. The alliance case was ultimately established.

End of the alliance case

The Vice President of the German Bundestag , Antje Vollmer , posed the rhetorical question “Alliance case for ever?” In doing so, she pointed out that the NATO Council had failed to define a clear goal, an outcome and an “ exit strategy ”. Due to the lack of a formal termination, the NATO alliance case remains in force as of 2017, which, according to Swiss politician Dick Marty, is an advantage for the US surveillance activities.

Terrorist attacks on November 13, 2015

According to the former Inspector General of the Bundeswehr and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee , Harald Kujat , Germany may soon fight militarily alongside France against the " Islamic State ". This results from Germany's duty to provide assistance to France, a state attacked from outside by an act of war . The statement by Chancellor Angela Merkel that Germany will “do everything possible to fight these terrorists together” means “basically a declaration of war on IS”, Kujat said on November 14, 2015 in the ZDF program “maybrit illner special". “That means that if France takes military action against IS, we will be together on France's side. That is a very far-reaching definition, ”continued Kujat. The question is whether German politicians are ready to honor this stipulation.

On November 17, 2015, the French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for the military support of France by the other EU states in the fight against the "Islamic State", citing Article 42 (7) of the EU Treaty. The appeal to the EU treaty also appeals to the solidarity of Austria , Sweden , Finland , Ireland , Cyprus and Malta, i.e. EU states that are not also members of NATO. The fact that France does not refer to Article 5 of the NATO Treaty is justified on the one hand by the fact that there is already an alliance against the "Islamic State" in which 60 states, including all NATO member states, are involved; on the other hand, referring to the EU treaty tends to allow Russia to be involved in measures in which France takes the lead.

According to the EU foreign affairs representative Federica Mogherini , the EU defense ministers have unanimously declared their readiness to support France. Brussels is only acting in a coordinating manner here, since the Union does not maintain its own military within the framework of the European security and defense policy . The individual EU states act bilaterally.

Turkish involvement in the Syrian war

After 33 Turkish soldiers were killed by the Assad army on Syrian territory on February 28, 2020, calls for the fall of an alliance under Article 5 were loud. Turkish President Erdogan, who supports Islamist fighters in the Idlib region , threatened to open the borders to refugees from the civil war if NATO does not back him up in northern Syria. However, Article 5 does not provide that a country can ask for military assistance after a counterattack on its own offensive. As early as 2019, in the wake of the Turkish invasion of northern Syria, there were fears that a Syrian counterattack could trigger the alliance case.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b EU Treaty - Article 42 . In: dejure.org .
  2. ^ Differences over consequences , FAZ, September 13, 2001
  3. ↑ What are the consequences of the "alliance case"? , by Günter Werner, Network Peace Cooperative , May 2002
  4. ↑ What does the NATO treaty say about the "alliance case"? , AG Peace Research , undated
  5. ^ NATO press release. Retrieved September 15, 2001 .
  6. ^ NATO Parliamentary Assembly Notice. Archived from the original ; Retrieved in 2001 (accessed autumn 2001).
  7. ↑ Alexander Weinlein: With "unlimited solidarity" to war. German Bundestag, December 8, 2014, accessed November 15, 2015 .
  8. ↑ a b Petra Bläss, Wolfgang Gehrcke, Carsten Hübner, Heidi Lippmann, Dr. Winfried Wolf and Roland Claus: PDS application for the lifting of the alliance case March 21, 2002. (PDF; 182 kB) Accessed on January 13, 2010 .
  9. ↑ DIE LINKE parliamentary group: End the NATO alliance case immediately December 17, 2013. (PDF; 182 kB) Accessed November 21, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Holger Schmale: Is the NATO alliance case the key? Berliner Zeitung , July 9, 2013, accessed on May 9, 2014 .
  11. ↑ Terror in Paris - Attack on Europe's Heart ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . “ Maybrit Illner ” SPECIAL . November 14, 2015, accessed November 18, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.zdf.de
  12. ↑ Appeal to the EU treaty . ORF . November 17, 2015, accessed November 18, 2015
  13. ↑ What the alliance case means . The world . November 17, 2015, accessed November 18, 2015
  14. ↑ After the attacks in Paris: France uses the EU aid clause . Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) . November 17, 2015, accessed November 18, 2015
  15. ↑ Turkey's Syria Offensive: Is Erdogan Dragging Germany to War?
  16. ↑ Escalation in Idlib Federal government in "great concern"
  17. ^ Fighting in Northern Syria: Concern about the NATO alliance case

Web links