It started with a ship… What role for Germany in the Indo Pacific’s security architecture? 

In August 2021, Germany jumped its shadow again by sending the frigate FGS BAYERN to a 7-month Indo-Pacific deployment underpinning the document with real-world politics. 

This paper highlights why the BAYERN deployment is a remarkable step for Germany´s foreign and security policy as a whole and what role Germany could and should play in the future security architecture of the Indo-Pacific region. 

Author Johannes Peters (Head of Center for Maritime Strategy & Security at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK)) concludes that Europe must establish and maintain a naval presence in the Indo-Pacific to underpin its value-based foreign policy and to support international law and a rules-based system. Such a presence is a clear signal to China, as it shows that freedom of the seas is a reciprocal value and that European ships have every right to sail these waters. Additionally, it sends a signal of support and acceptance to the US, specifically that its strategic shift to Southeast Asia is understood and acknowledged.  

This is the sixth of seven papers in the HCSS Guarding the Commons series, edited by Paul van Hooft and Tim Sweijs, and is part of the new HCSS “Europe in the Indo-Pacific Hub (EIPH)”.

Read the complete paper series here:

• Thucydides Lives in Asia: Power Transition Traps Are Real, by Patrick Porter (University of Birmingham)
• Between AUKUS and the Quad: Scaling European Interest in the Indo-Pacific, by Jagannath Panda (Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses)
• European Engagement in the Maritime Security in Indo-Pacific: a Japanese Perspective, by Yuki Tatsumi (The Stimson Center)
• Getting Real about the Indo-Pacific: Redefining European Approach to Maritime Security, by Frédéric Grare (European Council on Foreign Affairs – ECFR) and Mélissa Levaillant (Institute of Higher National Defence Studies)
• Multilateralizing Maritime Cooperation in East Asia: South Korea’s Cautious but Delayed Response, by Kuyoun Chung (Kangwon National University)
• It started with a ship… What role for Germany in the Indo Pacific’s security architecture?, by Johannes Peters (Head of Center for Maritime Strategy & Security at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University (ISPK))
• Multilateralizing Maritime Security in the Indo-Pacific: How Europe can contribute to regional deterrence, by Stephan Frühling (Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University)