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The German ministry of defence is planning to establish offensive 'cyber warfare' capabilities according to the online edition of the Spiegel.
Here's a bit of context: The German constitution allows the employment of the German military exclusively for purposes mentioned in the constitution expressly (the German constitutional court did bend this beyond recognition in 1999 to include the bombing of Yugoslavia).
My assumption is the minister wants to employ the offensive 'cyber warfare' capability and she does not want to be in trouble for blatantly violating the constitution.
Does it make sense to include 'cyber warfare' capabilities in the Bundeswehr in light of this assumption and the constitutional restrictions on employment of the German military?
Not for someone who wants the German federal government to work well, and this is independent of the questions whether offensive 'cyber warfare' makes sense or whether public servants or soldiers are the correct personnel for the job.
It does make sense once we take into account two of my economic pet theories; Niskanen's budget-maximizing bureaucrat and the principal-agent problem.
The intent to create offensive 'cyber warfare' capabilities in the Bundeswehr (or otherwise under MoD control) doesn't make sense to someone who wants good governance, for it wouldn't be good governance. It makes a lot of sense if we consider the top of the German MoD as a bunch of selfish individuals not optimizing public benefits, but maximizing their power, prestige, toy arsenal, budget, personnel strength, media attention and political profile.
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