For years, German Multilateralism; followed the philosophy of “change through trade”. This method was suitable to justify any agreement with dictatorships, regardless if they threatened German security interests. The legitimacy of governments plays an essential role in peace and stability – writes the German Foreign Office in its Crisis Prevention Handbook. However, this does not apply to Germany’s main trading partners, such as Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia and Iran, nor Russia and China. We conducted a study by asking representative groups of the German population how they perceive the role of democracy in German security policy because we want to raise awareness of democracy as a critical security interest.
