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This chapter centres on the German responses to September 11 2001 and the ‘War on Terror’. It examines the post-Cold War transformation of the role of the Bundeswehr in the 1990s and tries to assess the nature and extent of change in German strategic culture. It also shows how strategic culture affects policy behaviour. This chapter determines that in the aftermath of the war in Iraq, the Iraq German security policy became focused on three interconnected matters, namely: the reform of the Bundeswehr, the creation of a practical European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), and the re-building of relations between Germany and the US.
This chapter takes a look at the theme of strategic culture and uses it as an approach to security studies. It first examines several existing studies and conceptions of strategic culture, before it discusses a new definition of strategic culture. It then creates a conceptual framework that can be adapted to the case of Germany. This chapter reveals that strategic culture now presents a practical alternative to the more traditional rationalist approaches in security studies.
A perfect companion to European politics today, written by the same authors, this book presents past events, prominent personalities, important dates, organisations and electoral information in an accessible, easy-to-read format. The book is split into five sections for ease of use: a dictionary of significant political events, a chronology of major events in Europe since 1945, a biographical dictionary, a dictionary of political organisations and electoral data. In addition to being a comprehensive reference tool, this book is intended to provide a sound historical background to the development of Western European politics.
This chapter examines the reform of the German armed forces. It appraises several attempts during the 1990s to change the Bundeswehr from its Cold War organisation into a modern military equipped for a wider range of missions. It shows that these attempts have been surrounded by controversy and slowed down by financial uncertainties. This chapter also emphasises the external and internal impulses for defence reform and discusses the different factors that have slowed down policy change.
This book reviews a variety of approaches to the study of the European Union's foreign policy. Much analysis of EU foreign policy contains theoretical assumptions about the nature of the EU and its member states, their inter-relationships, the international system in which they operate and the nature of European integration. The book outlines the possibilities for the use of discourse analysis in the study of European foreign policy. It sets out to explore the research problem using a political-cultural approach and seeks to illuminate the cognitive mind-maps with which policy-makers interpret their political 'realities'. The book provides an overview and analysis of some of the non-realist approaches to international relations and foreign policy, and proposes an analytical framework with which to explore the complex interplay of factors affecting European foreign policy. The book suggests one way of seeking theoretical parsimony without sacrificing the most defining empirical knowledge which has been generated about Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) over the years. It argues that while the sui generis nature of CFSP presents an acute problem for international relations theory, it is less pronounced with regard to traditional integration theory. The book discusses the dimensions of European foreign policy-making with reference to the case of arms export controls. Situated at the interface between European studies and international relations, it outlines how the EU relates to the rest of the world, explaining its effort towards creating a credible, effective and principled foreign, security and defence policy.
This chapter sets out to explore the research problem using a political-cultural approach and seeks to illuminate the cognitive mind-maps with which policy-makers interpret their political 'realities'. It provides a brief discussion of national and European role conceptions, based on a comparative study of British, French and German foreign policy in the context of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Role conceptions could metaphorically be thought of as 'road maps' which facilitate the foreign policy-maker's navigation through a complex political reality. The stability of the European Union (EU) as a foreign policy actor is dependent on the member states consistently adopting common role conceptions and modifying their behaviour according to each others' roles and expectations. If a Europeanisation of foreign policy is taking place, we would anticipate that member states would be adopting position roles that increase the predictability of foreign policy and stable expectations.
This section provides, in the style of a dictionary, explanations of significant political events, groupings and developments.
This section provides, in the style of a dictionary, details of the political careers of significant West European politicians, especially those who have been head of their country’s government or head of state.
This section consists of lists of abbreviations (or short names) of political parties and other important organisations which play (or have played in the recent past) a significant political role, together with the names of those organisations.
Contained within this section is a set of chronologies, divided into groups based on particular countries or groups of countries. As well as a general chronology for each country or group of countries, specialised chronologies of major developments are supplied, which cover, for example, the reunification of Germany and the transition to democracy in Spain.