Abstract
This chapter is based on salience and framing analysis of German news media coverage. We conceptualize fiascos as extreme subcase of mistakes and hypothesize that influential foreign policy norms trigger a fiasco framing in German media coverage. Our empirical results show a stable consensus about what can be regarded major foreign policy fiascos: Germany’s Yugoslavia policy in the 1990s, the failed referendums on the European Constitution in 2005, the decision on Libya in 2011 and, finally, the transatlantic crisis over Iraq in 2003. These findings as well as a qualitative analysis of a puzzling negative case confirm that a perceived violation of the norm of multilateralism is indeed almost a necessary condition for fiasco framing. Other findings relate to blame attribution and authorship of fiasco framing.
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Notes
- 1.
In our understanding, fiascos are extreme subcases of mistakes. By characterizing an event or outcome as a fiasco, authors usually imply exceptional and arguably long-term programmatic or reputational consequences.
- 2.
With respect to the Euro crisis , Germany has sometimes been accused of behaving quite unilaterally. In fact, it did act against the preferences of its European partners, for instance, by resisting the establishment of Eurobonds. In the overall scheme of things, however, Germany’s unfaltering support for the common currency can be said to corroborate its multilateral foreign policy tradition.
- 3.
The terms in German were ‘Fiasko’, ‘Debakel’, ‘Desaster’, ‘Versagen’ and ‘Scheitern’.
- 4.
Again, we need to emphasize that fiascos, in our understanding, represent an extreme subcase of mistakes. Because of extremely negative connotations they have a particularly lasting impact on foreign policy discourses. Germany’s policy towards Yugoslavia or the US intervention in Somalia might be cases in point.
- 5.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Archiv and Süddeutsche Zeitung Archiv/Library Net, accessed via http://faz-archiv-approved.faz.net/intranet/biblionet/r_suche/FAZ and http://librarynet.szarchiv.de/Portal/restricted/index.jsp
- 6.
Our three-people coder team achieved an intercoder reliability rate of 0.67 which we were able to improve to 0.9 after a revision.
- 7.
See the criticism of Michael Glos and other Christian Democrats who accused Chancellor Schröder to contribute to the failure of the EU referendums by promoting a Turkish EU membership (SZ 2005).
- 8.
This is not to say that fiascos were necessarily unavoidable. Human agency still matters for social framing , but in different ways as compared to personally or politically framed narratives. Once ill-designed policies are firmly in place, it takes critical voices and bold measures to prevent negative outcomes. Since, however, dissident perspectives are unlikely to be able to influence policies, there is a high probability that fiascos, even though they are not determined, are going to happen.
- 9.
The so-called German visa affair refers to the systematic misuse of visa, allegedly for the purpose of prostitution and human trafficking, which were issued by the German embassy in Kiev.
- 10.
The fact that both Fischer and Westerwelle kept commenting on controversial domestic policy issues during their terms in office might well have contributed to this tendency. Another reason derives from their respective biographies and their image as typical representatives of very specific social milieus (liberal upper-class versus alternative-urban). As a consequence, their ability to reach out to and to gain respect from other milieus was comparatively modest.
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Hansel, M., Viehrig, H., Ankel, D. (2018). Where Berlin Got It Terribly Wrong: German Foreign Policy Fiascos in the News Media. In: Kruck, A., Oppermann, K., Spencer, A. (eds) Political Mistakes and Policy Failures in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68173-3_4
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