Our freedom cannot be taken for granted, as we have certainly seen since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, if not before. Freedom must be actively protected and defended. However, personal security goes beyond protection from war and violence. Security also means not having to worry about power supplies or finding the medicines you need in the pharmacy. Security means not being spied on when you are online or manipulated by foreign bots when you use social media. Security means being protected from the impact of the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity.

The National Security Strategy describes Germany’s role at a time of global power shifts and systemic rivalry and provides answers to the external threats to our democracy and free basic order. It defines security policy comprehensively and with a focus on the individual.

This Strategy takes an integrated-security approach. In other words, it views security as a part of all policy fields ‒ not only the military and diplomatic ones ‒ and describes a common goal for all of these fields. If the security situation deteriorates, each and every policy field is affected. Likewise, each policy field can contribute to improving the security of our country.

Wehrhaftigkeit (Robustness), resilience and sustainability are the three central dimensions of German security policy.