Military capacities and a strong anchorage in the EU
One other German reinvention in foreign policy is needed. The only endeavour commensurate with Germany’s strength and level of ambition is that of an explicit attempt to shape the rules of the international political and economic order, in strict alignement with Berlin’s EU allies. None of these ambitions can materialise if this new German foreign policy orientation is not embedded in a domestic consensus.
Germany is not unique in choosing the path of introversion. Many countries experience a similar difficulty in dealing with the growing complexities of the interconnected world.
As in many mature democracies, the biggest challenge to German foreign policy lies inside the country's domestic discourse. Much of its post-war reinvention had to do with taming the risks which Germany could pose to itself and to others.
The process is long since complete but what lingers on are its side-effects: the self-imposed limitations on Germany's foreign engagement and the tendency for Germany to underestimate security risks in its external environment.
Germany is not unique in choosing the path of introversion. Many countries experience a similar difficulty in dealing with the growing complexities of the interconnected world. Part of the phenomenon is an instinctive reaction to the perceived failure of liberal interventionism, a post-Cold War attempt to spread democracy, if needed through the power of the gun. In Germany's case, the introversion has been written large and became a constitutional feature of modern German statehood.
It is not that the country has been a passive foreign policy actor. Germany has an unspoken vision of foreign policy. In that vision, economic interdependence serves as a great stabiliser which is bound to limit the scope for great power conflict.
Overview for this article
1
Beyond defence of the status quo!
2
The rules of interdependence
3
Self-restraint or free-ride?
4
External dimension of the German reinvention
5
Shaping the rules of the international system
6
Rapprochement with hard power
7
Firming up the EU anchor
