Anti-terrorist tactics of Germany in the beginning of the 2020 s: military-political aspects
In the second half of the 2010 s, the scale of the threat of international terrorism faced by the EU and NATO member states increased significantly. This not only led to a large geographical expansion of the area of anti-terrorist struggle, but also initiated an active search for more effective specialized tactics. The article illustrates this process by the case of Germany, taking into account its growing activity on the world stage. Germany has taken part in the missions in the Mediterranean Sea deployed to prevent the arrival of fighters mimicking refugees into the EU. The paper pays special attention to German participation in anti-terrorist struggle in the countries of Middle East, Central Asia, and Sahel that have been trying to clear their territories of radical illegal armed groups. Germany has not been involved in the first phase of the fight against terrorist groups, during the initial military defeat, but later actively participated in the implementation of anti-terrorist prevention measures. The author indicates the factors that determine Germany’s readiness to use its military potential in the struggle with terrorist structures in a particular country. The article also stresses the de jure non-combat nature of the use of the Bundeswehr and explores the features and also «bottlenecks» in the use of its military contingents and the deployment of its military training missions. The task of the latter is to ensure that local security forces accept the main burden in the fight against illegal armed groups on their territory, while at the same time the FRG controls the training of security forces (first of all army) and the use of troops. The author compares the schemes for the use of military training missions of the Bundeswehr in Mali, Somalia and Iraq. The main conclusion is that Germany is developing an anti-terrorist tactics which include the targeted use of special operations forces in order to reach the «point of no return» in the defeat of the militants.