Hanns W. Maull Grund, Sebastian Harnisch, eds. Constantin. Deutschland im Abseits?: Rot-grÖ¼ne Aussenpolitik 1998-2003. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2003. 193 pp. EUR 29.00 (paper), ISBN 978-3-8329-0180-6.
Reviewed by Douglas Peifer (Air Command and Staff College)
Published on H-German (April, 2004)
[Disclaimer: The views expressed in this review are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the US Air Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. government.]
At the time of its publication, this collection of essays on the foreign policy of Germany's Red-Green coalition government presented a timely and thorough overview of the subject. Hanns Maul, Sebastian Harnisch, and Constantin Grund's edited collection of seventeen essays addressed bilateral German-American and German-French relations; Germany's role in NATO and the EU; German policies in the Balkans, Near East, and Far East; and Red-Green security, human rights, foreign aid and development, and trade policies. The various essays focus largely on Red-Green policies during the Schroeder government's first term, adjustments made before and after the 2002 Bundestag elections, and developments prior to the Iraq War of 2003. Overall, this collection presents an excellent sense of the state of affairs in each of its subject fields at the outset of 2003, yet given developments associated with the Iraq War, the draft EU constitution, and Bundeswehr reforms, the shelf life of a number of these essays will be short for those seeking a current assessment of Red-Green foreign policy challenges and responses.
Several themes crop up in the various essays. Each essay explores the issue of continuity and change, examining whether Red-Green campaign pledges for change and reform were carried out once in power. Did the Schroeder government break with the practices of the Kohl government in substance, or did long-term German interests ensure that changes were superficial? Likewise, most essays examine the issue of rhetoric versus reality. Once in power, did the Red-Green coalition provide adequate funds to implement pledges to modernize the Bundeswehr, strengthen European defense capabilities, prioritize human rights, and increase foreign aid? Or did budgetary constraints stymie reform? Lastly, the essays dealing with U.S.-German bilateral relations, human rights, and foreign aid and development examine the downward spiral in Atlantic relations. These essays highlight the frictions and differences between Germany and the United States, exploring whether estrangement is an inevitable result of the end of the Cold War or the temporary reflection of administrations at opposite ends of a democratic political spectrum.
The authors of this collection stem from faculty, graduates, and associates of the University of Trier's program in foreign affairs and international relations. Hanns Maull introduces the collection with an editorial posing the framing question whether German foreign policy has gone astray. The following essays tackle that theme from a variety of perspectives, with full professors, institute directors, journalists, and young scholars among the contributors.
The two essays on bilateral relations provide good overviews of the relationship of the Red-Green coalition with Germany's two most important partners: the United States in the area of security politics, and France as essential partner and complementary motor to European integration. Nikolas Busse's contribution on German-American alienation explores how divergent views about international relations and interests pre-dated the Iraq crisis. The salon "anti-Americanism" of SPD 68ers mingled with the moral-pacifistic tendencies of the Greens and left-liberal milieu to create an attitude that celebrated multilateralism as a good in itself. This contrasted sharply with the American conceptions of international affairs, with tensions already surfacing under the Clinton administration regarding National Missile Defense. These submerged difference grew more pronounced under the George W. Bush administration, with the U.S. withdrawal from the ABM treaty, its rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Control, and, after September 11, its determination that "the mission determines the coalition, not vice versa," exposing divergent views concerning multilateralism and unilateralism. Simmering differences broke into the open when Schroeder elected to make German opposition to the United States' Iraq policy a campaign issue. Busse predicts an eventual German-U.S. reconciliation given the alternative of German self-isolation and informal neutrality.
Christoph Nesshoever's contribution on German-French relations illustrates how common long-range interests can overcome short-term differences and disagreements. Nesshoever examines how Schroeder's campaign pledge to reduce German contributions to the EU's Common Agricultural Program, French skepticism about EU expansion, and disagreements about EU voting weights resulted in the worst Franco-German relations of forty years at the 2000 Nice summit. For Nesshoever, the "internalization" of foreign affairs made it difficult for French and German leaders to compromise on campaign pledges, yet after a steady decline in relations the Schroeder and Chirac governments realized that the trend needed to be reversed. Nesshoever concludes that France and Germany remain the joint pistons of European integration, recognizing that the Franco-German engine will face challenges when the EU train expands to twenty-five members in May 2004.
In two separate essays, Martin Wagener and Marco Overhaus explore the issues of Bundeswehr deployments and European efforts to develop an independent security and defense identity within the framework of NATO (ESDI) or independently within the European Union (ESDP). Both essays provide useful overviews of how the Red-Green coalition has moved far from the conservative policies of its predecessor, deploying German troops in areas that its predecessor would hardly have dared, including Afghanistan and Somalia. Both essays emphasize that the Schroeder government has quietly embraced new missions and responsibilities while simultaneously reducing defense expenditures. Overhaus provides a useful theoretical dimension to this conundrum, postulating that cooperative security entails both military and political dimensions. The Red-Green coalition, in line with its commitment to multilateral diplomacy, focuses on the latter, recognizing the political utility of security dialogues and commitments while unable or unwilling to back these commitments with the necessary funds.
Sebastian Harnisch, Siegfried Schieder, and Henning Tewes focus on German policies toward the European Union and EU expansion. Harnisch and Schieder note how responsibility rapidly forced the Red-Green coalition to moderate some of its campaign rhetoric about CAP contributions and EU financial burden redistribution. They note how German EU policy is increasingly enmeshed with domestic agendas, as multiple voices from Bundeslaender to the Bundesverfassungsgericht to business interests compete and contribute in determining policy positions. Tewes, in his article on EU expansion, analyzes how Germany's EU partners played upon the Schroeder government's commitment to expanding the EU eastward in order to pressure it to drop reformist agendas in the area of the Common Agricultural Policy and EU voting rights. Given the publication date, neither article addresses the most important EU issue of 2003: the draft EU constitution and the inability of Europe's national leaders to endorse the document.
The collection includes three essays on German regional policies, with Constantin Grund examining Red-Green policies in Southeastern Europe, Joern-Carsten Gottwald analyzing Far Eastern policies, and Hanns Maull discussing German peacemaking efforts in the Near East. Grund's essay provides a useful summary of German diplomacy in the Balkans during and following the Kosovo conflict. He notes that while the Red-Green coalition proved more willing than its predecessor to support peacekeeping efforts with troops and equipment as well as funds, it has been willing to engage only within the framework of multilateral institutions (EU, NATO) and has shown an unwillingness to pursue an active, independent national role. Joern-Carsten Gottwald contrasts Red-Green campaign criticism of the Kohl government's China policy against its actions when in power. He concludes that while the SPD and Greens attacked Kohl for putting trade opportunities before human rights, once in power they in effect carried out a similar policy. Maull's selection explores Fischer's efforts to play the role of peace broker after the collapse of the Oslo peace process. Maull concludes that three factors rendered Fischer's initiative unrealistic from the start. First, Germany and Europe understood power in civil terms while Near Eastern leaders valued and understood military power. Second, Germany has traditionally embedded its foreign policy initiatives in multilateral organizations, and attempted to do the same in an area where these are weak or non-existent. Lastly, neither party in the Near East viewed Germany or the EU as viable partners in the peacemaking process. Israel distrusted the Europeans, and the Palestinian Authority proved weak and ambivalent to German and EU initiatives.
Three final essays on transnational diplomacy round off this collection. Florian Luetticken and Bernhard Stahl examine Germany's foreign trade policy, Peter Molt the Red-Green government's foreign aid and development policies, and Florian Pfeil its international human rights policy. While Luetticken and Stahl acknowledge that continuity rather than change characterized Red-Green international trade policies, they note that the Schroeder government broke new ground in advocating the inclusion of environmental and social issues at various trade summits and conferences. Molt's analysis of foreign aid likewise concludes that the Red-Green coalition made significant changes. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), established in 1962, began to pursue a more activist agenda in line with Red-Green's commitment that development should be viewed as an essential element of foreign and security policy. Molt further notes how Red-Green development policies often clashed with U.S. international aid policy over issues ranging from how aid should be distributed (multilateral versus bilateral), what sort of projects should be funded, and which countries should receive assistance. The final essay--Pfeil's contribution on human rights policy--reiterates that Red-Green's agenda increasingly clashed with that of the Bush administration. Pfeil explores how Green activists pushed for a human rights program that went beyond "first generation" political rights and embraced "second generation" economic-social rights. Even more so than in the area of development, the Red-Green government broke new ground in establishing an Office for Human Rights Issues, a Bundestag standing committee on human rights, and an independent Human Rights Institute. Internationally, the Schröder government strongly supported the Rome Statute establishing an International Criminal Court and intensified efforts to abolish the death penalty. Pfeil remarks that while the Red-Green coalition proved willing to pressure small nations and western democracies such as the United States in the area of human rights, the Schroeder government showed reticence in raising similar concerns when dealing with China, Indonesia, and Iran.
The various essays will serve as useful references, but given their short length (from twelve to sixteen pages) the pieces should be viewed more as overviews than definitive studies. The political scientist will be disappointed at the lack of theory in most entries, while the historian will note that a good number of essays rely heavily on newspaper accounts, public statements, and ministry press releases, with few sources that might shed light on the closed-door, internal dynamics of policy creation. Yet as a collection, the work presents a concise, well-written, and broad-ranging examination of Red-Green foreign policies spanning issues from high diplomacy to trade and development initiatives.
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Citation:
Douglas Peifer. Review of Grund, Hanns W. Maull; Harnisch, Sebastian; Constantin, eds., Deutschland im Abseits?: Rot-grÖ¼ne Aussenpolitik 1998-2003.
H-German, H-Net Reviews.
April, 2004.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=9171
Copyright © 2004 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at hbooks@mail.h-net.org.