Thursday, August 11, 2005
BUNDESTAGSWAHL 2005 / GERMAN ELECTION LOG: HOPING FOR A CHANGE IN FOREIGN POLICY
If Germany is governed by a Christian-democratic (CDU/CSU) & right-liberal (FDP) coalition from Septemebr 18th onwards, the FDP’s Wolfgang Gerhardt is poised to be the new foreign minister. In the current edition of Internationale Politik he has outlined where he thinks German foreign policy should go, and I will provide in-depth analysis in the days ahead, which will also include my endorsement.
(The Transatlantic edition doesn’t currently have the article but here’s a report in English. The German-language pdf-link is here.)
This ties in well with reports about the Christian-democrat leader Angela Merkel’s desire to reconnect with the US. It is certainly true that there are limits to where any future Kanzler could take German foreign policy so a little caution is in order, as the Economist points out, it will be rebalancing, not realigning. But it does need to be borne in mind that these Atlanticist positions that are being articulated, are not only not vote-winners, but in the circumstance that international security comes back onto the agenda, will be electoral suicide. Hence we can conclude that politicians such as Gerhardt and Merkel are definitely sincere in their ambitions to craft a foreign policy that will in effect be closer to Britain’s.
If Germany is governed by a Christian-democratic (CDU/CSU) & right-liberal (FDP) coalition from Septemebr 18th onwards, the FDP’s Wolfgang Gerhardt is poised to be the new foreign minister. In the current edition of Internationale Politik he has outlined where he thinks German foreign policy should go, and I will provide in-depth analysis in the days ahead, which will also include my endorsement.
(The Transatlantic edition doesn’t currently have the article but here’s a report in English. The German-language pdf-link is here.)
This ties in well with reports about the Christian-democrat leader Angela Merkel’s desire to reconnect with the US. It is certainly true that there are limits to where any future Kanzler could take German foreign policy so a little caution is in order, as the Economist points out, it will be rebalancing, not realigning. But it does need to be borne in mind that these Atlanticist positions that are being articulated, are not only not vote-winners, but in the circumstance that international security comes back onto the agenda, will be electoral suicide. Hence we can conclude that politicians such as Gerhardt and Merkel are definitely sincere in their ambitions to craft a foreign policy that will in effect be closer to Britain’s.
