It depends on the political foundations!
In Latin America, German foreign policy has been successful. In spite of the diversity of actors, political parties, labor unions, political foundations, NGOs and the federal states were able to convey an underlying coherence among them that revealed their unity of purpose in the promotion of democracy.
An active foreign policy would be consistent with Germany's economic power and the political influence it already exercises in the EU.
Last January Angela Merkel began her second term in office with an address to the Bundestag in which she announced that Germany would take on new political and military responsibilities in Europe and the world.
This represented a new direction for Germany's foreign policy with respect to the tradition handed down by the former West German Republic, BRD, which understood relations with the outside world almost solely in terms of international trade; identified its own interests and goals with those of the European Union; and saw its alliance with the United States as the cornerstone to its security.
Merkel's announcement suggests that for Germany today international politics is a game of weights, effective counterweights and unilateral influences; and no longer a hegemonic structure in which a single country has the power to condition other countries’ decisions and preferences in the international sphere.
This context is an opportunity for Germany to become a global power and to extend its political influence beyond Europe to emerging regions such as Asia or Latin America, and to Africa. Moreover, an active foreign policy , which would stretch out beyond the boundaries of the European Union, would be consistent with Germany's economic power and the political influence it already exercises in the EU.
The proposed revision seems to respond to a changing environment more than to a game of power politics. So much so, that the Bundeskanzlerin's proposal retains central premises from the past, namely that any military action would be undertaken within the framework of NATO, and also that far-reaching diplomatic initiatives would entail coordination with other international actors.
These two caveats notwithstanding, the proposal raises a number of questions regarding the country's alliances; the building of influence in non-European regions of interest; and the relevance of a new doctrine of German foreign policy that would result from the combination of the soft power the BRD ably played in Latin America in the seventies and eighties with the instruments of hard power.
Overview for this article
1
Promoting democracy in Latin America
2
The transforming international system challenges Germany's role
3
The end of self-restraint?
4
Germany’s Latin America policy: a success of soft power
5
Successful diplomacy in Mexico
