Suchergebnisse

Summary in English. Examines attitudes of both East and West towards a hypothetical German reunification; also considers impact of East-West relations on relations between East Germany and West Germany.

Few issues have created more tensions and uneasiness in international affairs than the idea of a nuclear armed Germany. The militarist and expansionist tradition of Germany has induced in its neighbors an underlying fear of a possible revival of her past hehavior. The apparition of nuclear weapons in the international System after 1945, and the subsequent accession of Great Britain and France to the status of nuclear powers, has added a further dimension to the German problem. During the Cold War, the issue of German nuclear weapons was rarely discussed favorably, particularly in Europe. The case was different in the United States where Germany's role in the nuclear strategy of NATO was approached with a detachment seldom found in British or Trench political literature. The demise of the East-West confrontation and the unification of Germany have encouraged many American scholars, often associated with the neorealist school, to push for the end of Germany's singularisation in the nuclear field. For them, a nuclear armed Germany, if not inevitable, could well become a source of military stability in the region. Although most of them base their arguments on the merits of selective nuclear proliferation, they adopt similarly an olympian perspective towards Germany which is markedly different from what is found in European literature. Their position of course does not reflect Washington's official view on the proliferation of nuclear weapons. This paper tries to circumscribe their line of thought and argues that it closely parallels, to a certain degree, the broader American attitude towards Germany seen as an equal and reliable ally in the evolving European security context.

Au printemps 1999, la participation de la RFA aux bombardements de VOTAN sur la RFY a constitué une étape clef de la « normalisation » de la politique étrangère et de sécurité allemande. Le premier objectif de cet article consiste à analyser les réactions de l'Allemagne durant toute la crise. Cet examen permet de voir que non seulement le gouvernement a participé aux « frappes aériennes » mais qu'il a largement contribué aux mesures d'aide humanitaire et à la solution diplomatique ayant mis un terme au conflit. En second lieu, nous analysons ces actions en relation avec la rhétorique du gouvernement pendant la crise. Notre but consiste ici à identifier la part des intérêts nationaux et celle de la morale dans les motivations allemandes. Pour ce faire, la théorie de la guerre juste est utilisée. Nous concluons que si le gouvernement allemand et I'OTAN pouvaient moralement recourir à la coercition dans le cas du Kosovo, la conduite de cette guerre ne correspondait pas aux critères de l'éthique de la guerre juste. Bien que la raison d'État n'exclût pas les considérations morales, la première primait probablement sur les secondes dans l'esprit des décideurs allemand