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Germany’s Growing Power in EUrope: From Multilateral Collectivism Towards Re-Nationalization and Destabilization?

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Fear and Uncertainty in Europe

Part of the book series: Global Issues ((GLOISS))

  • The original version of this chapter was revised due to a Publisher-generated error. For detailed information please see correction. The correction to this chapter is available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91965-2_14

Abstract

The chapter deals with the puzzling relationship between Germany and EUrope. Arguing that even unified and more powerful Germany does neither behave in line with Kenneth N. Waltz’s power balancing- nor with John Mearsheimer’s regional hegemony seeking-predictions, it discusses three issues: (1) How does German foreign and security policy in the post-Cold War era fit into the realist picture? Which factors drive and shape Germany’s European policy? (2) Did Germany strive for collective action within the EU to reach common European goals? Or did Berlin use its increased power to realize national interests through unilateral actions? Is there a tendency that Germany moves away from multilateral collectivism towards an assertive, rather unilateral, re-nationalized foreign policy? Or is there a third way of German foreign policy? (3) What are the consequences of a rising Germany? Does Germany cause new fear, uncertainty and destabilization, and does EUrope suffer from a new ‘German problem’? The chapter reconstructs the long road of Germany’s foreign policy from the so called ‘Checkbook Diplomacy’ during the Second Gulf War via the Balkan wars to EU enlargement, and from Iraq War via the Libya intervention to the Crimea annexation through neoclassical realist lenses. In doing so, it works out milestones and identifies continuity as well as turning points and an ongoing process of gradual and remarkable shifts in both, Germany’s self-conception (including self-expectations) and external expectations, and in rhetoric about a ‘new responsibility’ since the late 1990s, leading to a more assertive and shaping German foreign policy sui generis in a changing EUrope – with quite different consequences.

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Change history

  • 18 November 2018

    “Realist” has different senses in different uses—necessarily and appropriately, but with considerable potential for obscurity or even confusion.

Notes

  1. 1.

    See Crawford 1996; Die Welt, 7 November 1991, “Bonn setzt die EG unter Druck.”

  2. 2.

    All states with the exception of Greece which had a package deal with Germany not to block the recognition, but to elude the decision because of an unsolved Greek-Macedonian dispute concerning a Greek province called Makedonia, and unsolved territorial questions at that time.

  3. 3.

    Interview with Gianni de Michaelis in L’espresso, 4 July 1993, cited according to Lucarelli (1995: 21, footnote 25).

  4. 4.

    Federal President Joachim Gauck’s speech “Germany’s role in the world: Reflections on responsibility, norms and alliances” on 31 January 2014 at the opening of the Munich Security Conference (cited according to Hellmann 2015, 2016a, b); Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s speech on 1 February 2014 at the Munich Security Conference (cited according to Hellmann 2015, 2016a, b).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany

    Alexander Reichwein

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  1. Alexander Reichwein
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  1. Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Roberto Belloni

  2. Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Vincent Della Sala

  3. Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA

    Paul Viotti

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Reichwein, A. (2019). Germany’s Growing Power in EUrope: From Multilateral Collectivism Towards Re-Nationalization and Destabilization?. In: Belloni, R., Della Sala, V., Viotti, P. (eds) Fear and Uncertainty in Europe . Global Issues. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91965-2_5

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