Not surprisingly, permanent membership on the UN Security Council is a coveted international plum, and those countries that enjoy membership are empowered to virtually veto any substantive action on the part of the Security Council single-handedly (Carlson 9). In the alternative, if the Russian foreign policymakers accepted Germany's bid for membership, it might swing the balance of power from the existing China-Russia (and sometimes France) cabal that exists today and would, from Russia's perspective, seriously undermine their international standing. Russia could recommend that Germany assume a more prominent role in the UN as a more active member of an existing peacekeeping function or increase its commitment to the NATO alliance; this approach, though, might well play into hands of German foreign policymakers in the future as discussed further below.

Germany. Today, German foreign policymakers are assumed to have embraced the three fundamental attributes associated with civilian power over military rule:...
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