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Book reviews – Comptes rendus – Buchbesprechungen 129
Germany would have hardly been able to escape its Mittellage and establish its democratic
foundation (p.38). Six principles, which Tewes spells out as distinctive features of Germany
as a Civilian Power tie together Germany, Western integration, and civilianization. They
include Franco-German partnership and the departure from balance-of-powers politics.
Germany recognised the principle of shared sovereignty on the Community level, the
process character of European integration and its progressive nature (pp.40-42). Instead of
relative gains Germany has pursued positive gains and “transformative goals” (p.204).
Pursuing Civilian Power principles does not mean neglecting national interest. The latter
is not, however, perceived as individualistic but rather in the context of the growing
interdependence in international relations. Civilian Power promotes good governance,
democratisation and sustainable development. Preference of collective action, compromise
and mediation, of institutional solutions, partnership and collective enforcement of
international norms characterise its policy style.
Relations with the ECE: a test of the Civilian Power policy
Relations with East central Europe are highly asymmetrical, loaded with historical
memory and with political implications from the past for the present. Has Germany become
more assertive, seeking one-sided (national) advantage and pursuing a path of individual
policy-making rather than developing collective, co-operative and multilateral action? The
author’s hypothesis is that after 1990, German Civilian Power would first seek to eliminate
all bilateral problems in relations with its partners to the East. Then, it would try to export
Civilian Power to these countries: civilanization of the young Eastern democracies “occurs
through stabilisation, which in turn occurs through multilateral frameworks” (p.48).
Following his methodology Tewes defines six roles most typical for the Federal Republic’s
foreign policy: integration deepener, integration widener, security consumer, Atlanticist,
Gaullist and Moscovite. He seeks to clarify the conflicting inter-relationships between the
individual role concepts by prioritising, by “role change” and “role merger”.
Germany sought trustful relationships with the Eastern neighbours after 1989. The task
was facilitated by the fact that Germany had no intention to revive political Mitteleuropa
concept in any form, or to pull strings on the issue of the Oder-Neisse border. After all,
giving up territorial expansion became one of the most important fundaments of German
political culture after the World War 2. Tewes points out that Germany turned away from the
territorial politics of the past with Willy Brand’s Ostpolitik.
The unprecedented congruence of interests of Germany and its Eastern neighbours
notwithstanding, trustful relations between Germany and its Eastern neighbours (Poles and
Czechs) had to overcome inherent tension regarding the past, mainly the post-war
settlement. Tewes comes to the conclusion that the Civilian Power role of Germany was
“negated” (p.62) by the influence of domestic considerations on Helmut Kohl’s treatment of
the Oder-Neisse issue and, as we would add, the Sudeten-German issue. The impact of
expellee organisations on German policy has been an important factor in the domestic
balance of powers for conservative parties. The Chairwoman of the expellee organisation in
fact tried to blackmail Poles and Czechs with the view of their interest in the EU accession.
Germany manoeuvred itself even into an isolated position after Minister Klaus Kinkel
denied the legal validity of the Potsdam agreement in the course of negotiation of the
German-Czech declaration of 1997 (p.75). Tewes concludes that in its bilateral relations
Germany failed to approximate Civilian Power ideals. The main reasons are the German
legalistic political culture, which seeks legal solutions to political problems, reinforced by a
particular set of domestic interests (p.78).
The double enlargement
Tewes finds the record of Germany in terms of the Civilian Power model rather mixed in
the early phase of the EU enlargement to the East. Germany favoured deepening and
defence of its domestic interests to civilanization through multilateral stabilisation (p.89).