I'm forwarding a couple of recent announcements from the mailing list
of the AICGS (American Institute for Contemporary German Studies,
Washington, DC). They have a Website at Johns Hopkins University:
http://www.jhu.edu/~aicgsdoc/
To join their mailing list, fill out the on-line form at:
http://www.jhu.edu/~aicgsdoc/mlist.htm
DL
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 11:00:38 -0500
From: AICGS <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: AICGS Electronic Newsletter: Rudolph Scharping
To: AICGS Mailing List <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-to: The American Institute for Comtemporary German Studies
<[log in to unmask]>
Priority: normal
AICGS' series of profiles on Germany's new cabinet continues with this
latest update about Rudolph Scharping, Germany's new Minister of
Defense. The full list of the new cabinet is available on the
Institute's web site at
http://www.jhu.edu/~aicgsdoc/wahlen/cabinet/newcabinet.htm
Rudolph Scharping
Rudolf Scharping's appointment as minister of defense is perhaps
symbolic of the fact that he is one of the most diligent and committed
soldiers in the SPD. He worked himself up from the bottom ranks of the
party eventually becoming the SPD candidate to face Kohl in the 1994
election. As minister president of Rheinland-Pfalz, he had conquered
the same state for the SPD that has been the training ground for
Helmut Kohl's rise to power. Yet, after the 1994 loss to Helmut Kohl,
Scharping also lost his position as party chairman to Oskar Lafontaine
in 1995. Scharping remained leader of the Fraktion in the Bundestag
and he expected to remain in that position in a Red-Green coalition.
But Gerhard Schroeder and Oskar Lafontaine decided otherwise, leaving
Scharping with his new duties as defense minister.
Scharping has some immediate problems. The coalition
government decided to set up a commission to review the role of
the Bundeswehr. This leaves much speculation about the future of the
draft, the size of the Bundeswehr and the continuing debate over
participation in NATO out-of-area missions. Scharping, like his
predecessor Volker Ruehe, believes in the capacity and the need for
Germany to be engaged in peacekeeping efforts under NATO. Yet, he will
be facing challenges from both the Greens and the SPD over the extent
of such efforts and the necessity of a UN mandate. A long dormant
argument over whether NATO should adopt a "no first use policy" with
regard to nuclear weapons reemerged last week following statements by
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. And if the government is to get its
fiscal house in order, the defense budget may be affected as well.
Scharping is being accompanied in the ministry by parliamentary
State Secretaries Walter Kolbow (SPD) and Brigitte Schulte
(Greens). He has also recruited defense policy expert Walter
Stuetzle as a state secretary, formerly editor of Tagesspiegel, as
well as Peter Wichert.
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