THE JOURNAL OF REGIONAL HISTORY V.6 No.2
German foreign policy in the period of adaptation to the realities of the post-b...
THE JOURNAL OF REGIONAL HISTORY V.6 No.2

German foreign policy in the period of adaptation to the realities of the post-bipolar world

Authors:
Dzhemma V. Petrosyan
DOI:
Full text:
The transition from a bipolar to a post-bipolar system of international relations and the reunification of the FRG and the GDR in 1990 marked the beginning of a new stage in the history of Germany. The article examines the period of transformation and adaptation of the foreign policy of reunited Germany to the realities of the post-bipolar world order. The purpose of this study is to analyze the main directions of German foreign policy during the chancellorship of Helmut Kohl. At that time it was important for the FRG to strengthen stability and develop democracy in the territories of neighboring eastern countries. The position of the FRG in German-American relations had also changed. Reunited Germany became a strategically important partner of the United States in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and one of the central countries to initiate NATO expansion into Eastern Europe. Bilateral relations between Germany and Russia during the period under review developed in a positive way, since after the collapse of the USSR and the reunification of Germany both countries were in search of new foreign policy benchmarks. Providing a detailed description of the actions of the first government of reunited Germany in adapting the country to the new external conditions, the author concludes that a new geopolitical situation was formed in Europe after the reunification of the FRG and the GDR.
Dzhemma V. Petrosyan
PhD student, Department of European and American Studies
Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2570-0380
jemma95@mail.ru
Adomeit, H. “Politika Germanii v otnoshenii Rossii: konets ‘medovogo mesyatsa’” [German policy towards Russia: The end of the ‘honeymoon’]. Zapiski IFRI. ‘Russie. Cei. Visions’, no. 6 (b) (2005): 2–22. Accessed January, 6, 2022. https://www.ifri.org/sites/ default/files/atoms/files/adomeitrusse.pdf (In Russian)
Akhtamzyan, A.A. Ob"edinenie Germanii. Obstoyatel'stva i posledstviya. Ocherki [Reunification of Germany. Circumstances and consequences. Essays]. Moscow: Biblos konsalting, 2010. (In Russian)
Belov, V.B. Germaniya. Vyzovy XXI v. [Germany. Challenges of the 21st century]. Moscow: Ves' Mir, 2009. (In Russian)
Bierling, S. Die Außenpolitik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Normen, Akteure, Entscheidungen. Munich, Vienna: Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 1999.
Gorbachev, M.S. Kak eto bylo: ob"edinenie Germanii [How it happened: The reunification of Germany]. Moscow: Vargus, 1999. Accessed March 30, 2021. https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=10391&p=1 (In Russian)
Görtemaker, M. Kleine Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 2002.
Hacke, C. Die Außenpolitik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland von Konrad Adenauer bis Gerhard Schroder. Frankfurt/M; Berlin: Ullstein Verlag, 2003.
Haftendorn, H. Deutsche Außenpolitik zwischen Selbstbeschränkung und Selbstbehauptung 1945–2000. Stuttgart; München: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2001.
Hellmann, G. “Die prekäre Macht: Deutschland an der Schwelle zum 21. Jahrhundert.” In Deutschlands neue Außenpolitik, vol. 4, Institutionen und Ressourcen, 265–82. Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1998.
Imangaliev, R.N. Novaya Germaniya v menyayushchemsya mire: mezhdunarodnoe polozhenie i vneshnyaya politika Germanii na rubezhe XX–XXI vv. [A new Germany in a changing world: International Position and foreign policy of Germany at the turn of the 20th–21st centuries]. Kazan: Novoe znanie, 2006. (In Russian)
Klaus, D. “Das neue Deutschland: eine neue „Weltmacht“?” Leviathan, vol. 19, no. 2 (1991): 247–60. Accessed January 10, 2021. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23984249?seq=1# metadata_info_tab_contents
Knapp, M. “Schwerpunkte der deutschen Außenpolitik im Verhältnis zu den Vereinten Nationen seit 1990.” In Handbuch zur deutschen Außenpolitik, edited by S. Schmidt, G. Hellmann, R. Wolf, 727–46. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften; GWV Fachverlage GmbH, 2007.
Kozhevnikov, V.V. “Prezident Rossii Boris El'tsin i kantsler FRG Gel'mut Kol': nesbyvshiesya nadezhdy” [President of Russia Boris Yeltsin and Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl: Unfulfilled hopes]. In Rossiya i Germaniya v novoi Evrope: konets XX – nachalo XXI vv. [Russia and Germany in the new Europe: The late 20th – early 21st centuries], edited by B.V. Petelin, 89–91. Cherepovets: ChGU, 2012. (In Russian)
Noelle-Neumann, Е. “Öffentliche Meinung und Außenpolitik. Die fehlende Debatte in Deutschland.” Internationale Politik, no. 8 (1995): 127–34.
Pavlov, N.V. Istoriya vneshnei politiki Germanii: ot Bismarka do Merkel' [The History of German foreign policy: from Bismarck to Merkel]. Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 2012. (In Russian)
Pavlov, N.V. Vneshnyaya politika FRG v postbipolyarnom mire [German foreign policy in the post-bipolar world]. Moscow: Nauka, 2005. (In Russian)
Pavlov, N.V., and A.A. Novikov. Vneshnyaya politika FRG ot Adenauera do Shredera [German foreign policy from Adenauer to Schröder]. Moscow: Moskovskie uchebniki, 2005. (In Russian)
Pogorel'skaya, S.V. “Vnutripoliticheskie aspekty novoi germanskoi vneshnei politiki” [Internal political aspects of the new German foreign policy]. Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, no. 7 (2001): 91–100. (In Russian)
Schauer, H. “Europa und Amerika – Rivalen oder Partner?”, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, Вd. 29–30 (1999): 12–21.
Schöllgen, G. Der Auftritt. Deutschlands Rückkehr auf die Weltbühne. Munich: Propyläen Verlag, 2003.
Schöllgen, G. Strakh pered siloi. Nemtsy i ikh vneshnyaya politika [Fear of power. The Germans and their foreign policy]. Translation and foreword by N. Pavlov. Moscow: Buklet, 1994. (In Russian)
Steinmeier, F.-W. “Verflechtung und Integration. Eine neue Ostpolitik der EU.” Internationale Politik, no. 62/3 (2007): 6–11.
Strelets, M.V. “Rossiiskii vektor vneshnei politiki vtorogo pravitel'stvennogo kabineta A. Merkel' v FRG: nekotorye aspekty istorii” [Russian vector of foreign policy of the Second Merkel cabinet in Germany: Some aspects of history]. Vestnik Ryazanskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta im. S.A. Esenina, no. 1 (46) (2015): 58–73. (In Russian)
Vasil'ev, V.I. “Rossiya i Germaniya. Dialog ili sanktsii?” [Russia and Germany. Dialogue or sanctions?]. Obozrevatel' – Observer, no. 9 (296) (2014): 27–41. (In Russian)
Vorob'eva, L.M. Vneshnyaya politika FRG na poroge XXI v. [Germany’s foreign policy at the turn of the 21st century]. Moscow: Rossiiskii institut strategicheskikh issledovanii, 2000. (In Russian)
Keywords:
foreign policy relations, USA, Helmut Kohl, eastern politics, adaptation period in Germany, the Soviet Union, post-bipolar world order, German-Russian relations
For citation:
Petrosyan, D. “German foreign policy in the period of adaptation to the realities of the post-bipolar world.” Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, vol. 6, no. 2 (2022): 407–38, https://doi.org/10.23859/2587-8344-2022-6-2-2

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

ISSN 2587-8344 (Online)