Suchergebnisse

Hellmann's analysis of Germany's power politics resocialization & idealization of the "Bonner Republic" are not persuasive. Foreign policy based on civil power remains power politics, & examination of the available documents & the Soviet Union relationship demonstrates that the foreign policy actions of the "Bonner Republic," if not the rhetoric, were genuine power politics. From a neorealistic point of view, serious changes in power relationships in international systems affect the foreign policy of nations, & superpower hegemonic-imperialistic tendencies trigger creation of opposition powers. Foreign policy after 1990 is a reaction of states to new power relationships in the new international system, characterized by a combination of unipolar & multipolar elements. The crisis proposed by Hellmann appears to be more a crisis of political science than foreign policy. Rather than the isolation likely to result from Hellmann's "offensive idealism," the real alternatives are bandwagoning with the US or greater European cooperation to generate a European-American balance. Germany & France have selected the second option. L. Kehl

This response to Hellmann's diagnosis of the deepest crisis of German foreign policy since 1949 reflects on the nature of & resistance to power politics. While German foreign policy has a number of problems, particularly with respect to resources, dramatization of political affairs does little to illuminate them, & Hellmann's less than persuasive crisis is nothing more than a delayed & protracted adjustment process of foreign policy to a new international framework. As Hellmann knows, a general problem in social science disciplines is the use of metaphors instead of specific terms, & yet ironically he utilizes a vague resocialization metaphor in his critique. It is unclear why Germany should exclude itself from the typical mode of politics, & in light of the international approach Germany has taken, it is difficult to see how Hellmann's perspectives on resistance to power politics resulted in such a negative assessment. The true difficulty the German administration has with power politics is it requires that the important participants employ calculation, moderation, & dependability. L. Kehl

Although the collapse of both the European Defense Community and the European Political Union was strongly felt, new measures were soon taken to strengthen European integration, which eventually led to the creation of the European Economic Community and the Euratom. The proposition was made to apply the same concept used in the European Coal and Steel Community to other sections of European economy. Federal Finance Minister Ludwig Erhard was categorically against this proposal from the very start; instead, he insisted upon a loose alliance between sovereign states based upon market demand and the natural development of economic interests. Erhard met with opposition in the person of Franz Etzel, the Vice President of the High Commission of the European Coal and Steel Community, who was an equally committed and determined proponent of a different school of thought. Etzel's argument was that only institutionally defined criteria would ensure the growth and stability of the alliance of the six member states. Indeed, the crisis that arose toward the end of 1956 was resolved due to Etzel's strong advice to accept the concessions made to France. (Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte / FUB)

Ziel des Bandes ist, Denkwege zu erschließen: Denkwege, die nahelegen, jenseits nationalstaatlicher Erfahrungen nach Bedingungen der Möglichkeit von Demokratie und Frieden zu fragen. Der analytische Zugang hierzu wird über zwei der gegenwärtig spannungsreichsten Kontroversen internationaler Politik gewonnen: Das Demokratiedefizit der EU und der US-amerikanische Anspruch auf präventive Selbstverteidigung. Dabei wird - die epistemologische Dimension des methodologischen Nationalismus aufgreifend – insbesondere der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern empirische Veränderungsprozesse epochalen Charakters nicht allein nach einer analytischen sondern auch nach einer normativen Reorientierung verlangen bzw. sogar voraussetzen

Mitte der 80er Jahre hat die UdSSR die Entideologisierung der Außenpolitik verkündet. In seinem Artikel behandelt der Autor die Relevanz der Entideologisierungs-Problematik füt lateinamerikanische Länder. Betrachtet wird diese Frage im Zusammenhang mit dem Kräfteverhältnis "Ost-West", insbesondere aber vor dem Hintergrund des Konflikts zwischen Kuba und den USA. Nach der Nivelierung der ideologischen Gefahr, die von der UdSSR im jahrzehntelangen ideologischen Krieg ausging, bedeutet dies für Lateinamerika eine größere Unabhängigkeit in der internationalen Politik. Von den USA werden angesichts der Entspannung zwischen Ost und West auch Schritte zur Entideologisierung ihrer Politik in Lateinamerika erwartet. (BIOst-Ldg)

This study dispels the common view that the Trump administration has fundamentally reoriented the United States' China policy by emphasizing strategic competition. Instead, the study argues that the Obama administration's pivot initiative began the shift of the United States' China policy from a defensive realist posture toward an offensive realist posture. The Biden administration's China policy inherits the strategic competition approach. This study suggests that the competitive logic of the anarchic international system underlies all three administrations' competition-oriented China policies. Therefore, while there are differences in the China policies of the three administrations, their commonalities and continuities are salient. Structural realism, especially offensive realism and dynamic neorealism, thus offers important insights into the future direction of Sino-US relations. (J Contemp China / GIGA)

Contrary to other subfields of international relations, foreign policy analysis (FPA) has not experienced a "critical turn" yet. This research note suggests that this may be in part because FPA scholarship does already contain certain "critical" features, such as holding decision-makers to account and the incorporation of various "subordinated" actors in its analyses. Having said that, FPA scholarship tends to fall short on other dimensions of critical scholarship. That is, despite its relatively broad analytical net, it nonetheless silences certain actors, places little attention to the effects of foreign policy decisions, and shows a somewhat limited ethical-political engagement. While an outright critical turn is unlikely to be forthcoming not least for epistemological reasons, FPA would still benefit from a further infusion of critical insights.