German military leaders criticize ongoing restructuring of the Bundeswehr; Tension rises over China’s controversial territorial claim
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    • According to reports, more than 46 percent of the German officers and sergeants recently surveyed had negative reactions toward the implementation of the ongoing restructuring of the Bundeswehr. This study was carried out between June 26 and July 31 by the Technical University of Chemnitz on behalf of the German Bundeswehr Association. At its presentation on September 7 in Berlin, the federal chairman of the lobby association, Col. Ulrich Kirsch, stated, “If the politics do not readjust now, the realignment is on the verge of toppling.” Of the 1,768 officers and sergeants who took part in this survey, 27.3 percent described the plan itself to reform the Bundeswehr as bad or very bad. However, 88.1 percent of them also say that the process would not last and soon would need corrections. Also, 76.2 percent said it was extremely difficult for them to actively take part in the process and introduce their own ideas. A spokesman of the German Defense Ministry said, “In general, the survey corresponds with our own picture of the current situation.” A feeling of insecurity among soldiers, civil servants and their families would come along with this reform, the spokesman said. The German military is undergoing a restructuring process, including large cuts in military and civil personnel, closing of bases or ending of conscription. 1

    In another development, reports noted that China’s controversial territorial claim is at the heart of a simmering dispute among the nations that ring the South China Sea. That dispute was on full display last week, after China rejected calls by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to find agreement on the maritime borders. Also last week, representatives from the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, Indonesia and Malaysia voiced their markedly different perspectives on the situation at the Conference on the Practices of the UNCLOS and the Resolution of South China Sea Disputes. UNCLOS refers to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. At the conference held on September 3-4, 2012, speakers and delegates from the Asian countries dragged out ancient maps and cited international laws and agreements to justify their claims over the same rocks. 2

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