Why Germany’s nuclear mission matters

By Peter Rough, Frank A. Rose

Earlier this month, the influential head of the Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) parliamentary group, Rolf Mützenich, called for the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Germany and an end to Germany’s participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) nuclear sharing arrangements, triggering a contentious debate within the SPD. But as Mützenich’s party colleague, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, noted, such consequential steps, if they were ever decided, should not be taken unilaterally. Instead, they demand the input of allies.

As American analysts of national security affairs, we agree. And as veterans of the last Republican and Democratic presidential administrations, respectively, we