German Foreign Policy Since Unification

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.

This work examines the extent to which German foreign policy and European policy has changed since German unification. Despite significant changes on specific issues, most notably on the deployment of military force outside of the NATO area, there is greater continuity than change in post-unification German policy.

Germany is a major international player and not a small, neutral country: its foreign policy must be commensurate with its size, position and importance. Germans agree that, in time, their country's foreign policy will become more precise, as much in response to Germany's changed circumstances as to the welter of external demands and expectations. They remain, however, deeply sceptical about their partners' reactions to greater German self-confidence, knowing that they will not welcome this new stance in practice, however much they may support it in theory.

Covering German foreign policy since the end of World War II, this book explores Germany's recovery from wartime defeat and destruction. Through a chronological series of case studies, it offers a document-based account of 60 years of German policymaking.

Despite an array of predictions that Germany's foreign policy would be unable to adapt easily to the postunification, post-Cold War environment, it has in fact remained effective, even as it evolves in response to myriad challenges. Scott Erb analyzes German policy, with an emphasis on the transitions from 1980 to the present. Erb argues that Germany's success in dealing with a rapidly changing world rests on principles of multilateralism and cooperative institution building developed during the Cold War. These principles are especially well suited now, he finds, as interdependence and turbulence bring traditional notions of sovereignty and self-interest into question. Germany, he concludes, offers a sound model of foreign policy in an age of globalization.