German Security and Defence Policy Under the Traffic Light Coalition: Role Contestations & Party Dynamics in Policies Towards Ukraine and Israel

In this article, we probe the effects of party politics and coalition governments on the role concepts and performances of the Traffic Light Coalition on two critical cases for Germany’s defence and security policy: Ukraine and Israel. While role theoretical perspectives on German foreign policy have emphasised the consensus among major parties on international issues, scholarship on party politics shows that cleavages between parties do matter. Linking role theory with recent advances in research on partisanship and foreign policy, we offer a new perspective on the nexus between ego- and alter-role conceptualisation, coalition government dynamics and party politics. Theoretically, we argue that party politics in parliamentary systems may be integrated fruitfully in the constitution of the ego- and alter-role conceptions under certain assumptions. Empirically, we find that party politics influenced the Traffic Light Coalition’s security and defence policy decisions addressing the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. In both cases, contestations within and among parties of foreign policy roles occurred and shaped the coalition’s policies. Yet, while Russia’s war in Ukraine exposed fault lines within the coalition, policy towards Israel remained consistently supportive, stabilised by broader mainstream party consensus.