A Critique of Weapons

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there has been a great deal of debate among policy-makers in Germany about the need tio improve the country's military readiness. 

Across party lines, this intellectual mobilisation has parrotted the same mantras over and over again: armament is essential, deterrence ensures security, and pacifism is a fair-weather ideology for dreamers and Putin apologists. The German government has long since signed off on huge increases to the defence budget, and the reintroduction of compulsory military service is a possibility that keeps rearing its menacing head.

In this new book, Ulrich Bröckling rejects the supposed lack of alternatives to this call to arms. Without downplaying the brutality of Russia’s war in Ukraine or retreating into utopian visions of a peaceful world, he articulates a contemporary anti-war stance. In doing so, he challenges the unspoken assumptions of military think tanks and argues eloquently that a society that submits to the imperative of military capability in defence of the ideal of freedom is itself drifting towards authoritarianism.