A world of global risks and changed threats

Climate change, growing crises over resources, competition for scarce raw materials, rearmament and the spread of weapons of mass destruction pose the biggest global risks to peace and security. Because of the resulting conflicts over the distribution of resources, mass environmental migration and the destabilisation of states, unchecked climate change will become the main challenges for the international order. At the start of the 21st century, key players feel they are competing for access to energy and resources as well as for influence in international organisations. On the other hand, globalisation offers new opportunities and possibilities for shaping a fair and peaceful world. However, to achieve that goal globalization needs to be based on ecological and social rules, for unregulated globalisation divides the world into winners and losers, into abject poverty and colossal wealth. These risks and threats are confronting the world with new security problems.

Cooperative multilateralism to shape globalization

There are no national solutions to these global risks. What we need to do is to work together with the new global players to create a functioning, cooperative international order within the framework of the United Nations. Political regulation at the regional and the international level are needed in order for us to de-couple growth from greenhouse gas emissions, drive forward resource efficiency and renewable energies, and give globalisation a fair and ecological face. We advocate a cooperative multilateralism that goes beyond national and neoliberal pseudosolutions.

Green peace and security policy

The Greens' peace and security policy is geared towards protecting human rights, towards international justice and solidarity, sustainability, non-violence and strengthening international law. Our top priority is civilian crisis prevention. Green peace policy is geared towards eliminating the multifarious causes of violence, crises and conflicts. With the end of the East-West bloc confrontation and with new wars and civil wars, ethnic cleansing and massacres of civilian populations flaring up, a majority in the Greens has come out in favour of re-evaluating the role of the armed forces. Under certain circumstances, the military can make a necessary contribution to stemming and preventing violence and to consolidating peace. We reject "conflict resolution" by military means. The use of military force is always problematic. The use of military force in a war is a great evil regardless of the intended goals. Military means can be necessary to stem violence within the framework of United Nations peacekeeping missions. At best, then, the armed forces can support peace processes and create windows for crisis management, but they cannot bring about peace itself.

Green policy aims at strengthening the United Nations

The strength of the United Nations lies in its universal legitimacy: All 193 Member States take part in political processes within the UN. At the same time, this is also its weakness, for decision-making processes are often painstaking and protracted. The structure of the UN and the Security Council prevents reform processes and proves an obstacle to important decisions. The Security Council reflects the reality of 1945, but not of today. The Security Council must be reformed: Its composition must be fairer, incorporating Africa, Latin America and Asia, and the effectiveness of the body needs to be increased. The Member States must strengthen the UN in institutional, personnel and financial terms. Institutions such as the UN Department for Peacekeeping Operations and the Peacebuilding Commission need to be strengthened. We need a new, assertive UN Environmental Organisation with universal membership and a reform of the UN Economic and Social Council to create a Global Leaders Forum.

Giving priority to a European Foreign and Security Policy – valuing the transatlantic community

The EU is the first post-national player on the international stage and as such a strategic answer to globalisation. For the Greens, proceeding with European integration and strengthening its capacity to act in external affairs also take priority with regard to security policy. We are therefore in favour of majority-based decisions regarding the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy and of the European Parliament being involved on an equal footing. The EU is already taking on more and more police and military missions under a UN mandate. We welcome this development and are in favour of expanding these capacities where it remains linked to a preventive foreign policy directed towards peaceful conflict resolution. The EU should not become an imperial military power; it should remain a civil power. Therein lies its political influence and its authority in global politics. However, it must be in a position to stabilise Europe and to contribute to UN missions to maintain peace and security.

The transatlantic partnership and the friendship between Germany and the United States are much more than just NATO. The transatlantic community is founded on shared historical experiences and political values, close economic interconnections and on an intensive cultural exchange. Following the end of the bi-polar global order and the rise of new economic and political powers such as China and India, the transatlantic alliance also needs to redefine itself. Partners must learn to live with competition. The transatlantic alliance will not survive as a bloc against the rest of the world. It must become a part of a cooperative global order which also integrates the emerging economic powers. That includes addressing the issue of the future role of NATO. After the end of the old East-West bloc confrontation it must realign its tasks. We are not in favour of expanding NATO so as to create a competitor to the UN. Nevertheless, we still need NATO because there will be no other player in the foreseeable future that can guarantee Europe's common security and that can act as an alliance of nations to counter the renationalization of security policy. NATO must become part of a multilateral security architecture that is founded on the principle of common security and whose military missions are based on a UN Security Council mandate. Another key aspect as regards the future of NATO is that the EU and the United States must be on an equal footing.

Responsibility to Protect

At the UN's Millennium Summit in late 2005, the General Assembly embraced the "Responsibility to Protect". Where a state cannot or will not fulfil its responsibility to protect its population, the international community bears a share of the responsibility for initiating, through the UN, suitable diplomatic, humanitarian and other measures up to coercive measures as defined in Chapter VII of the UN Charter. We welcome this as an important step for preventing the most serious of human rights abuses in the future. However, the responsibility to protect does not grant the right to humanitarian intervention, nor is it a licence to wage war. Only the Security Council has the right to mandate the implementation of the responsibility to protect and only in very strictly delimited cases involving genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

Civilian conflict resolution - the guiding principle of Green peace policy

There can be no peace without security, and the key contribution to comprehensive security is civilian in nature. Civilian conflict resolution tackles the causes of war and violence instead of putting out fires in the short term; it thus fulfils our responsibility to ensure peace in a globalised world. Alliance 90/The Greens advocate strengthening civilian crisis prevention both when it comes to operational crisis prevention to de-escalate conflicts and when it comes to the more long-term elimination of the causes of conflicts and violence. By adopting a civilian deployment act, we want to promote the deployment of civilian experts to crisis regions and to create a rapid reaction pool of experts that can be drawn on for establishing the police, judiciary and administration when rapid conflict prevention is needed.

Towards a different Bundeswehr – a volunteer army in the service of the UN

The Bundeswehr must become more compatible with the UN and Europe. The current challenge when it comes to security policy is not national defence but multilateral peacebuilding within the framework of and on behalf of the UN. The Bundeswehr must be organised and adequately equipped to fulfil that role. We need a smaller and more modern Bundeswehr. With a volunteer army of around 200,000 soldiers Germany can contribute responsibly to ensuring security at the national, regional and international level. A consistent reform of the Bundeswehr will only be possible by abolishing conscription.

Long-term conflict prevention

Minimising climate change – overcoming crises over resources – shaping fair globalization
Unchecked climate change would lead to even more serious conflicts over the distribution of resources, mass environmental migration and the destabilisation of states or entire regions. That is why climate protection is also an aspect of peace policy. It is essential from an ecological and economic point of view that global warming be limited to 2°C. The emergence of new economic global players dramatically increases the demand for raw materials, which comes on top of the enormous demand from industrialised countries. 15% of the world's population still consumes 60% of crude oil and gas and more than 50% of other finite raw materials. A war such as the US war in Iraq is always also a war over resources. It not only causes thousands of casualties, but also in the long term poses a massive threat to global peace and energy security. Pursuing resource interests by violent means is unacceptable. Access to resources must be secured in a cooperative manner. This cooperation can only be achieved if it is based on justice. That is why, in the 21st century, a lasting peace can only be a just peace. The globalisation of profit-based economics must be countered by basing globalisation on the principle of social solidarity. For there can be no lasting peace where there is hunger and poverty, failing states and destruction.

Overcoming the disarmament crisis – halting the spread of weapons of mass destruction

The disarmament crisis must be overcome. We want Germany and the EU to become the engine and forerunner of a global policy of disarmament and arms control. The German government must implement a restrictive and verifiable arms export policy which is guided by human rights and compatible with a peace ethic. The United States and Russia must drastically and verifiably reduce their capabilities. That includes withdrawing US nuclear weapons in Germany and Europe. The German government must end Germany's "nuclear sharing". The nuclear dispute with Iran shows that we must again take the initiative regarding the debate over the consequences for peace and security policy of the spread and use of nuclear energy. Abandoning nuclear energy and curtailing its further spread is a pro-active peace policy.

Incorporating the gender aspect into security policy

Wars and conflicts are not gender-neutral. Women's rights and peaceful development go hand in hand, which is why we are in favour of comprehensively incorporating the gender aspect into peace and security policy. The adoption in 2000 of UN Resolution 1325 has put the issue of women's and men's different roles in conflicts onto the agenda. The Greens are working towards a National Action Plan that addresses the core issues of prevention, participation, protection and awareness-raising to implement the Resolution.

Green principles for international crisis management and foreign missions

The following principles and criteria must apply to international crisis management and foreign missions and Germany's involvement in them:

• Preventing war, securing peace
•  Parties to the conflict bear main responsibility, "do no harm"
•  Priority to be given to civilian crisis prevention
•  Disclosure of goals and interests
•  Military means only as a last resort
•  Never without a UN mandate
•  Always multilateral
•  Absolute primacy of the political
•  Guaranteeing performability and accountability
•  Guaranteeing parliamentary participation and acceptance