History And Foreign Policy In France And Germany

Why do states similar in size, resources and capabilities significantly differ in their basic orientations and actions across major domains in foreign policy, security and defense? This book addresses this important question by analyzing the major differences between the foreign policies of France and Germany over extended periods of time.

Why do states similar in size, resources and capabilities significantly differ in their basic orientations and actions across major domains in foreign policy, security and defense? This book addresses this important question by analyzing the major differences between the foreign policies of France and Germany over extended periods of time.

This book examines external perceptions of the Franco-German relationship, both from a historical perspective and as a driving force for regional integration. By providing various country and regional studies, it analyses the various types of perception and self-perception in several regions around the globe. Here, Franco-German cooperation serves as a mirror in which third-party countries view their own situation, today and in the future. The contributions address the questions of if and how the Franco-German reconciliation and cooperation is perceived as a role model for other regions, especially for the reconciliation of other inter-state and international conflicts. A concluding chapter highlights the divergences and convergences between the respective conflicts, and proposes recommendations for actors involved in diplomacy and international relations. The book is intended to provide scientific support for the implementation of the Franco-German Aachen Treaty of January 2019. It will appeal to scholars in political science and cultural studies, and to anyone interested in learning more about the Franco-German relationship and on external perspectives on it.

Since World War II, Germany has confronted its own history to earn acceptance in the family of nations. Lily Gardner Feldman draws on the literature of religion, philosophy, social psychology, law and political science, and history to understand Germany's foreign policy with its moral and pragmatic motivations and to develop the concept of international reconciliation. Germany's Foreign Policy of Reconciliation traces Germany's path from enmity to amity by focusing on the behavior of individual leaders, governments, and non-governmental actors. The book demonstrates that, at least in the cases of France, Israel, Poland, and Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic, Germany has gone far beyond banishing war with its former enemies; it has institutionalized active friendship. The German experience is now a model of its own, offering lessons for other cases of international reconciliation. Gardner Feldman concludes with an initial application of German reconciliation insights to the other principal post-World War II pariah, as Japan expands its relations with China and South Korea.

France, more than any other Western ally, has consistently tried to maintain its autonomy from U.S. foreign policy by insisting on a distinctively French global view and agenda. Whether interpreted as proud independence or petty intransigence, such French assertiveness has often embittered relations between the two nations and has sparked exasperation and resentment on both sides. In France and the United States: the Cold Alliance since World War II, Frank Costigliola examines the cultural and psychological aspects of postwar relations between the United States and its oldest ally and demonstrates the way in which these less tangible factors have colored the strategic, political, and economic ties between the two nations. This is the first major study of the two countries to look closely at the language of their diplomatic and cultural relations, and in particular at the ways in which gendered metaphors and allusions subtly affect attitudes and policies. The author also breaks new ground by considering how the end of the Cold War, the unification of Germany, the Persian Gulf War, the changing role of NATO, and the rise of the European Community have affected U.S. relations with France and with Western Europe as a whole. This timely and lively account sheds light on the political and personal clashes that de Gaulle had with Roosevelt and Johnson and that Mitterrand has had with Reagan and Bush. The author integrates into his political analysis the fascinating stories of the contested introduction into France of Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Hollywood films, and Euro Disneyland; the controversial adoption of French theories by some American intellectuals, the quarrel over AIDS, and the building of the I. M. Pei Pyramid at the Louvre. Costigliola's richly detailed account will be an important text for scholars and students of the postwar histories of the United States, France, and Western Europe.

Part I. The era of frustration (1945-1958) -- France's difficult entry into the Cold War -- French powerlessness -- Part II. Challenging the status quo (1958-1969) -- Re-establishing France's "rank"--Challenging the established order -- The apogee of de Gaulle's grand policy -- Part III. Imanaging de Gaulle's legacy (1969-1981) -- Opting for continuity -- The education of a president -- Part IV. The end of the Cold War (1981-1995) -- New Cold War, new detente -- The end of "Yalta" -- Part V. France and globalization (1995-2015) -- In search of a multipolar world -- Charts

This book explores the role of France in the events leading up to the end of the Cold War and German unification. --from publisher description.

"In Command of France" combines a detailed survey of French foreign policy during the Nazi period with a careful examination of France's corresponding military planning and preparation. France was under control, the author argues, and credits the civilian and military command with more vision, more determination, more competence than hitherto recognized.

The origins of the First World War continue to be a matter of controversy even a generation after the Fischer Debate. This volume excels in the breadth of its approach and will be indispensable to those teaching and writing on pre-1914 Europe.

De Gaulle was the first major Western leader to pursue a foreign policy designed consistently to break the vicious circle of the Cold War and the straitjacket of the nuclear balance of terror between Russia and the United States. At the same time, he sought to establish in France a new set of institutions designed to break another vicious circle: that of the divisive conflicts between French social groups and political parties, which led to weak governments and an ineffective state. This book studies the link between these two aims, both by examining de Gaulle's political aims and style in a political and cultural context, and by looking first at French policy towards the Atlantic alliance, and then at the impact of de Gaulle's foreign policy on domestic politics. As a result, many of the orthodox notions about de Gaulle are questioned.