Lieutenant Adam Schwarze is a member of the Navy SEALs who leads missions across the globe. Also working toward a graduate degree at Harvard University, Adam Schwarze focuses on areas such as nuclear deterrence and international security.
With China making aggressive moves around Taiwan’s defensive perimeter and Russia massing troops at the border of Ukraine, one area of relative stability in the geopolitical and deterrence realm is the US-Germany relationship. In November 2021, the incoming coalition government, formed by the Social Democrats (SPD), liberal Free Democrats (FDP), and Greens, announced that it would continue a policy centered around NATO as a nuclear deterrent.
SPD’s Olaf Scholz is at the helm of the new government, and his focus is on both cooperation between NATO members and “systemic contest” with nations of an authoritarian bent. This “staying of the course” was not a foregone conclusion, as factions within both the Greens and SPD hold anti-nuclear positions.
The general tone struck by the incoming coalition adheres to the policy set by outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel. One basic tenet of the nuclear-sharing arrangement within NATO is that nuclear bombs kept on German soil will be delivered by German pilots, should war break out and such become necessary. Another agreement is that Berlin is positioned as an “observer” when it comes to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
