This article discusses the German foreign and security policy towards Mali. It critically analyzes the decisionmaking process mandating the German contribution to the international efforts in Mali after the military coup d'état in 2012. While there has been an increasingly ambitious rhetoric when it comes to outlining the contours of a German Africa policy, this article finds that neither the capacities nor the willingness to contribute significantly match this new rhetoric. By contrast, the

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... e of Mali serves again as a reminder of the inertia, which traditionally characterizes German foreign and security decisionmaking, and of the restraint in shaping policies within international institutions and in engaging in an open domestic discourse on the interests and values underlying any strategic foreign and security policy decision.