Expertenrunde in München
Ein Einblick in die US-amerikanische Außenpolitik

Bradley Bowman serves as Senior Director of the Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He has served as a National Security Advisor in the U.S. Senate to members of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees, as well as an active duty U.S. Army officer, pilot, and Assistant Professor at West Point.

Bradley Bowman; www.fdd.org

Hinweis: Die Inhalte des nachfolgend veröffentlichten Interviews geben ausschließlich die Ansichten und Meinungen des Interviewten, Herrn Bradley Bowman, wieder.

HSF: Mr. Bowman, recent strategy papers like the 2017 National Security Strategy and the National Defense Strategy indicate a strategic shift in U.S. foreign policy: Great power competition seems to be the buzzword in Washington D.C. right now. Could you please elaborate on what this means specifically?

Bradley Bowman: I think in the United States we were a bit slow in waking up and realizing the threat that China presents. It was the United States after all that played a leading role in helping China join the World Trade Organization (WTO). The idea was that if China would join the WTO and become more prosperous, that it would make them more democratic, more peaceful and more bound to the international state system that made the U.S. and Germany prosper. Well, that belief was wrong. The U.S. has been slow in realizing that but over the last three years we realized, to use a metaphor, that we are in a “gladiator pen” and the two combatants are China and, dare I say, Western liberal democracies. We have been asleep on the floor while China is pummeling us and grabbing money out of our pockets and using that money and intellectual property theft to make themselves stronger, to present a more comprehensive threat. This is embodied by our 2017 National Secutrity Strategy.

HSF: You work for a think tank in Washington D.C. – how does this strategic paradigm shift affect your daily work?

I work at the “Foundation for Defense of Democracies”. The essence of our belief is that democracy is worth defending. If one focuses primarily on trade and economics, first we risk losing sight of what is most precious. That is our freedom. I worry that countries that do not understand the tactics and strategies of the Chinese may fall prey to them. By this I mean: there really is no such thing as a private Chinese company. I say that because every Chinese company is either already working for the Chinese communist party or they are one phone call away from that. Can you imagine a situation in China in which the party calls a company and says “we need you to do X”. That company is not going to say no. We have learned that slowly in the United States, where they have basically undertaken the largest theft and transfer of intellectual property in human history. And they have used what they have stolen from us to build their weapons to defeat us in the future. So as Germany considers its sovereign decision what role it wants Huawei to play here in Germany, I hope it realizes that according to Chinese stated policy of civil-military fusion, where they deliberately try to break down any barrier between that which is civilian and that which is military, I hope that our good allies in Germany realize, there is no such thing as a Chinese private company and that any information that they obtain, you might as well consider to be in the hands of the Chinese communist party.

HSF: You mentioned Huawei – a topic which is fiercely debated in Germany nowadays. What are your main concerns?

When I talk to my colleagues working for the military or the security community it really is a concern about information sharing between our two countries. You know, military force is only as good as your intelligence and if Germany invites Huawei into its most sensitive sectors I fear that the United States would not be able to share the intelligence with Germany that we are today. That would make Germany weaker. That would make the United States weaker.

The U.S. fears that the Chinese are going to use this information for two purposes – one: authoritarian control. If you have any doubt about that just look what they have done to the Uyghurs. If you have any doubt about that, look at what is happening in Hong Kong. That is a glimpse into a possible future. That may sound alarmist but have no doubt about it. Read the Chinese documents. They want to replace the Western liberal order and the respect for the rule of law with the law of the jungle. In order to do something about that the first step is: You have to understand what the Chinese are doing. It is not a war-peace binary. They are using all tools of national power – including economic – in order to get information. The second reason: The future of warfare is networked warfare informed by artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is informed by data. So if we give them data we are enabling authoritarian control and making their weapons more effective. The slower we are in realizing that, the weaker our position.

HSF: Mr. Bowman, thank you very much for the interview.

Das Interview führte Maximilian Witte, HSS