The Return of the Trading StateThe research done within the framework of this research projects should result in the publication of a book entitled “The Return of the Trading State. The Foreign Policy of Germany in a Multipolar World”.
The research project is based on the empirical observation that economic interests have been driving important foreign policy decisions in Germany such as, e.g. the German policy during the Eurozone crisis, the strategic partnerships with China and Russia, the liberalization of the arms export policy as a consequence of the “Merkel-doctrine”. This evidence contradicts the widely held view of Germany as a civilian power. However, it corresponds with many critical questions about the general direction of German foreign policy in the international community as well as in German political journalism.
It should be noted that this theory-based (international) debate on the understanding of the foreign policy role of Germany and the extent of possible changes, which took place in particular in the 1990s as a consequence of the reunification of Germany; the controversial debate came up again within the framework of Germany’s social democratic/green party government’s refusal to participate in the Iraq-war. While also politically promoted, the self-description as a civilian power established particularly under this government. Since then, the academic discussion about this topic has been put on a back burner for a while and scientific publications on German foreign policy declined. It is furthermore undisputed that Germany’s foreign policy reality cannot be explained by great power concepts. However, the question if Germany fights for civilizing international relations (civilian power) primarily due to its normative duty, or if a “judicialized”, “regularized”, pacified, and multilateralized ‒ thus completely “civilized” ‒ environment rather serves the major purpose of pursuing prosperity enhancement, respectively wealth optimization, remains unanswered.
This is where the project entitled “The Return of the Trading State. The Foreign Policy of Germany in a Multipolar World” draws on. With this research project, the question concerning the basic orientation of German foreign policy in a dynamic and fundamentally changing international environment shall be answered anew on the basis of various case studies. As a theoretical foundation, this project readopts the concept of a trading state, which was developed by Richard Rosecrance and initially applied to Germany by Michael Staack (“Handelsstaat Deutschland” 2000).
Letzte Änderung: 14. November 2017