World Power Forsaken

World Power Forsaken PDF Author: John Duffield
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804763186
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
What does German unification imply for international politics? Many commentators have speculated about how a united Germany will use its new found power and influence on the world stage, and for good reason. Because of its size, central location, and strong economy, Germany will inevitably exert considerable influence over developments in Europe, if not beyond. Drawing on interviews and other primary source materials, this comprehensive study examines in detail each of the central issues of Germany’s security policy since 1990: its promotion of political and economic reform in the former Soviet bloc, its efforts to maintain and strengthen European security institutions, the transformation of Germany’s armed forces, and its responses to international crises and conflicts, including the debate over German participation in foreign military actions. Rejecting claims that German policy is becoming nationalized and militarized, the author argues that Germany’s actions have in fact been characterized by considerable restraint and continuity with the past, notwithstanding its much greater potential freedom of action after the Cold War. In order to make sense of this record, the book presents a general framework of analysis that promises to be useful for explaining the security policies of a variety of states. It then shows how a variety of influences both in Germany’s external environment and within Germany itself have importantly shaped German security policy since unification. In sharp contrast to the realist approaches that have dominated security studies, the book highlights the roles played by international institutions and Germany’s distinct postwar political culture in molding German state behavior. In a final chapter, the author discusses the likely future course of German security policy and the implications of his analysis for the theoretical study of national security policy.

World Power Forsaken

World Power Forsaken PDF Author: John Duffield
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804763186
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Get Book Here

Book Description
What does German unification imply for international politics? Many commentators have speculated about how a united Germany will use its new found power and influence on the world stage, and for good reason. Because of its size, central location, and strong economy, Germany will inevitably exert considerable influence over developments in Europe, if not beyond. Drawing on interviews and other primary source materials, this comprehensive study examines in detail each of the central issues of Germany’s security policy since 1990: its promotion of political and economic reform in the former Soviet bloc, its efforts to maintain and strengthen European security institutions, the transformation of Germany’s armed forces, and its responses to international crises and conflicts, including the debate over German participation in foreign military actions. Rejecting claims that German policy is becoming nationalized and militarized, the author argues that Germany’s actions have in fact been characterized by considerable restraint and continuity with the past, notwithstanding its much greater potential freedom of action after the Cold War. In order to make sense of this record, the book presents a general framework of analysis that promises to be useful for explaining the security policies of a variety of states. It then shows how a variety of influences both in Germany’s external environment and within Germany itself have importantly shaped German security policy since unification. In sharp contrast to the realist approaches that have dominated security studies, the book highlights the roles played by international institutions and Germany’s distinct postwar political culture in molding German state behavior. In a final chapter, the author discusses the likely future course of German security policy and the implications of his analysis for the theoretical study of national security policy.

German Foreign Policy Since Unification

German Foreign Policy Since Unification PDF Author: Volker Rittberger
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 9780719060403
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
This book examines the extent to which German foreign policy has changed since unification, and analyzes the fundamental reasons behind this change. The book has three main aims. The essays develop theories of foreign policy to predict and explain Germany's foreign policy behavior. They test competing predictions about German foreign policy behavior since unification in several issue areas. They also assess the much-debated question as to whether post-unification Germany's foreign policy is marked by continuity or change.

The Politics of German Defence and Security

The Politics of German Defence and Security PDF Author: Tom Dyson
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857450239
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
The post-Cold War era has witnessed a dramatic transformation in the German political consensus about the legitimacy of the use of force. However, in comparison with its EU and NATO partners, Germany has been reticent to transform its military to meet the challenges of the contemporary security environment. Until 2003 territorial defence rather than crisis-management remained the armed forces' core role and the Bundeswehr continues to retain conscription. The book argues that 'strategic culture' provides only a partial explanation of German military reform. It demonstrates how domestic material factors were of crucial importance in shaping the pace and outcome of reform, despite the impact of 'international structure' and adaptational pressures from the EU and NATO. The domestic politics of base closures, ramifications for social policy, financial restrictions consequent upon German unification and commitment to EMU's Stability and Growth Pact were critical in determining the outcome of reform. The study also draws out the important role of policy leaders in the political management of reform as entrepreneurs, brokers or veto players, shifting the focus in German leadership studies away from a preoccupation with the Chancellor to the role of ministerial and administrative leadership within the core executive. Finally, the book contributes to our understanding of the Europeanization of the German political system, arguing that policy leaders played a key role in 'uploading' and 'downloading' processes to and from the EU and that Defence Ministers used 'Atlanticization' and 'Europeanization' in the interests of their domestic political agendas.

Germany's Foreign Policy of Reconciliation

Germany's Foreign Policy of Reconciliation PDF Author: Lily Gardner Feldman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0742526135
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
Since World War II, Germany has confronted its own history to earn acceptance in the family of nations. Lily Gardner Feldman draws on the literature of religion, philosophy, social psychology, law and political science, and history to understand Germany's foreign policy with its moral and pragmatic motivations and to develop the concept of international reconciliation. Germany's Foreign Policy of Reconciliation traces Germany's path from enmity to amity by focusing on the behavior of individual leaders, governments, and non-governmental actors. The book demonstrates that, at least in the cases of France, Israel, Poland, and Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic, Germany has gone far beyond banishing war with its former enemies; it has institutionalized active friendship. The German experience is now a model of its own, offering lessons for other cases of international reconciliation. Gardner Feldman concludes with an initial application of German reconciliation insights to the other principal post-World War II pariah, as Japan expands its relations with China and South Korea.

Demonstrating Reconciliation

Demonstrating Reconciliation PDF Author: Hannfried von Hindenburg
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 9781845452872
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
During the 1950s and early 1960s, the West German government refused to exchange ambassadors with Israel. It feared Arab governments might retaliate against such an acknowledgement of their political foe by recognizing Communist East Germany-West Germany's own nemesis-as an independent state, and in doing so confirm Germany's division. Even though the goal of national unification was far more important to German policymakers than full reconciliation with Israel in the aftermath of the Holocaust, in 1965 the Bonn government eventually did agree to commence diplomatic relations with Jerusalem. This was due, the author argues, to grassroots intervention in high-level politics. Students, the media, trade unions, and others pushed for reconciliation with Israel rather than the pursuit of German unification. For the first time, this book provides an in-depth look at the role society played in shaping Germany's relations with Israel. Today, German society continues to reject anti-Semitism, but is increasingly prepared to criticize Israeli policies, especially in the Palestinian territories. The author argues that this trend sets the stage for a German foreign policy that will continue to support Israel, but is likely to do so more selectively than in the past.

German Foreign and Defence Policy After Unification

German Foreign and Defence Policy After Unification PDF Author: Lothar Gutjahr
Publisher: Burns & Oates
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
An analysis of the evolution of German foreign and defence policy, charting its development since Yalta and examining the different perspectives of each of the parties and the main evolution in their thinking both before and since unification.

Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification

Mitterrand, the End of the Cold War, and German Unification PDF Author: Frédéric Bozo
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1845457870
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
This book explores the role of France in the events leading up to the end of the Cold War and German unification. --from publisher description.

Between Containment and Rollback

Between Containment and Rollback PDF Author: Christian F. Ostermann
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 1503607631
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
In the aftermath of World War II, American policymakers turned to the task of rebuilding Europe while keeping communism at bay. In Germany, formally divided since 1949,the United States prioritized the political, economic, and, eventually, military integration of the fledgling Federal Republic with the West. The extraordinary success story of forging this alliance has dominated our historical under-standing of the American-German relationship. Largely left out of the grand narrative of U.S.–German relations were most East Germans who found themselves caught under Soviet and then communist control by the post-1945 geo-political fallout of the war that Nazi Germany had launched. They were the ones who most dearly paid the price for the country's division. This book writes the East Germans—both leadership and general populace—back into that history as objects of American policy and as historical agents in their own right Based on recently declassified documents from American, Russian, and German archives, this book demonstrates that U.S. efforts from 1945 to 1953 went beyond building a prosperous democracy in western Germany and "containing" Soviet-Communist power to the east. Under the Truman and then the Eisenhower administrations, American policy also included efforts to undermine and "roll back" Soviet and German communist control in the eastern part of the country. This story sheds light on a dark-er side to the American Cold War in Germany: propaganda, covert operations, economic pressure, and psychological warfare. Christian F. Ostermann takes an international history approach, capturing Soviet and East German responses and actions, and drawing a rich and complex picture of the early East–West confrontation in the heart of Europe.

German Unification and the Union of Europe

German Unification and the Union of Europe PDF Author: Jeffrey Anderson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521643900
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
This book explores the effects of Germany's unification in 1990 on its policies toward the European Union.

The Collapse

The Collapse PDF Author: Mary Sarotte
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
ISBN: 0465064949
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
On the night of November 9, 1989, massive crowds surged toward the Berlin Wall, drawn by an announcement that caught the world by surprise: East Germans could now move freely to the West. The Wall—infamous symbol of divided Cold War Europe—seemed to be falling. But the opening of the gates that night was not planned by the East German ruling regime—nor was it the result of a bargain between either Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. It was an accident. In The Collapse, prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte reveals how a perfect storm of decisions made by daring underground revolutionaries, disgruntled Stasi officers, and dictatorial party bosses sparked an unexpected series of events culminating in the chaotic fall of the Wall. With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, she brings to vivid life a story that sweeps across Budapest, Prague, Dresden, and Leipzig and up to the armed checkpoints in Berlin. We meet the revolutionaries Roland Jahn, Aram Radomski, and Siggi Schefke, risking it all to smuggle the truth across the Iron Curtain; the hapless Politburo member Günter Schabowski, mistakenly suggesting that the Wall is open to a press conference full of foreign journalists, including NBC’s Tom Brokaw; and Stasi officer Harald Jäger, holding the fort at the crucial border crossing that night. Soon, Brokaw starts broadcasting live from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, where the crowds are exulting in the euphoria of newfound freedom—and the dictators are plotting to restore control. Drawing on new archival sources and dozens of interviews, The Collapse offers the definitive account of the night that brought down the Berlin Wall.