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Westbindung or Zentralmacht? – Contemporary German Foreign Policy from a Constructivist Perspective
Abstract
Research Objective: The aim of the article is to analyze the determinants of the contemporary German foreign policy. According to the constructivist approach, these determinants lie mainly in the way in which the nation perceives itself through the opinion-forming elite, because its identity determines what is considered possible, appropriate and permissible in foreign policy.
The Research Problem and Methods: The article adopts a constructivist approach, according to which the shape of a state’s foreign policy is determined not so much by objective factors, such as military and economic potential, but by the way in which a given political entity interprets itself and its environment.
The Process of Argumentation: I analyze the intra-German discussion on the new shape of German foreign policy from the point-of-view of Poland as a country interested in maintaining the unity of the West. From this perspective, the decisive question is whether the German attachment to the idea of the West still holds. Referring to the standard textbook of German foreign policy and selected monographs, I confront two German self-images: that of a Western democracy and that of a central power.
Research Results: A state’s strategic goals are determined by the national identity, so it is necessary to see how Germans perceive themselves. Contemporary German identity is not uniform, but is the subject of internal ideological and political disputes.
Conclusions, Innovations, and Recommendations: It is in Poland’s interest that Germany defines itself as a liberal democracy belonging to the family of Western countries, and not as a European central power or a “power in the center.”
Keywords
Germany ; foreign policy ; nationat identity ; the West ; central power
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