Germany’s Post-WWII Foreign Policy and EU Role
Germany’s European Policy and International Relations
There are also public broadcasters related to the Länder. In terms of programming, a trend toward frivoling their own variety programs is verified, due to competition with private broadcasters. This is detrimental mainly to political and cultural content, aggravating communication problems that political parties and other social organizations have.
Germany’s European Policy and International Relations Post-1945
That the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was an economic giant and a political dwarf was a constant complaint of Chancellor Willy Brandt, protesting the low weight of what was the first international European economy two decades after the end of the Second World War. The immediate German past, the rationale for external veto, rejected Germany’s interest in making 1945 a zero hour where the story belonged to a past to forget. Until 1952, the FRG did not recover (partially) its sovereignty. The absence of a peace treaty until 1990 led to the FRG being limited on defense and foreign affairs to the decision of the occupying powers. Its membership since its creation (1955) in NATO and the EEC was a guarantee that Germany would be seamlessly integrated into the Western bloc of the Cold War. Its division into two states in 1949 became the main problem outside Germany. A foreign policy that confronted the Soviet bloc radically whenever the German Democratic Republic (GDR) did not recognize or accept the Polish Oder-Neisse rivers border as valid.
This priority of German foreign policy, as a constitutional mandate contained in the Basic Law of 1949, had different approaches under the various governments:
- Hallstein Doctrine (1955): Declared an act of enmity with the FRG to establish relations with the GDR by third countries, causing the rupture of diplomatic relations or the establishment of economic sanctions.
- Grand Coalition (1966): Softened the previous doctrine, which finally disappeared in 1972 with the signing of the Basic Treaty with the GDR.
- Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik: Sought a rapprochement to the East to avoid a nuclear confrontation on German soil. In 1973, the two German states became full members of the United Nations.
- Helmut Kohl’s Calculated Ambiguity (1982): Pursued a doctrine of stick and carrot discourse on the facts.
Germany After Unification
The end of the separation of Germany and the recovery of full sovereignty through the 2+4 Treaty would be a new international role for Germany. In that treaty, which sanctioned German membership in NATO, West Germany recognized the Oder-Neisse border as final, renounced the use of nuclear weapons, and limited its military.
When in the 1990s, after the disappearance of the USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Western military actions took on a new emphasis (the Gulf War, intervention in Yugoslavia), the former German bellicosity and its own legislation hindered the intervention of troops from West Germany in military action. In 1994, the Constitutional Court had to approve the constitutionality of the intervention under a UN mandate for German troops outside the national territory. The German special path was part of the special history of no less than Germany.
The Treaty on European Union and Germany’s New Role
The Treaty on European Union was the result of this new place that belonged to Germany. On one hand, France was linked to the powerful German economy through the creation of the Economic and Monetary Union. In return, Germany had made progress on the idea of a political Europe that would allow greater scope for action. The EU enlargement to Eastern Europe, the traditional German backyard, would form part of the main international interest in the new unified Germany. But the financial obligations of the FRG both in the Länder of the former GDR and the Eastern countries would resent its economy, moving these difficulties to the EU level. The request for a permanent seat on the Security Council of the United Nations would be another element of friction, as it upset the existing balance since the end of World War II.
The gradual recovery of voice in the international arena after World War II for Germany was received through its membership in European political organizations. Germany’s international presence is increasingly linked to its export powerhouse status, which guarantees a commercial presence on all continents. Since the last decade of the last century, it has intended to have a political content.