A Multilateralized Civilian Power Approach: The German Foreign Policy and Central Eastern Europe

Absztrakt

Applying the insights of role theory, this paper investigates Germany’s foreign policy since 1990 towards the Central and Eastern European region in general, and Hungary in particular. Applying Germany’s “civilian power” role concept as a yardstick, we explore whether Germany lived up to the expectations in the area of economic assistance, minority rights and the Eastern enlargement of the EU. In the next step, we review how Germany’s civilian power approach has changed since the CEE countries became members of the EU in 2004/2007. Overall, we find that Bonn very much lived up to its role concept before 2004/2007. What changed since then is that Germany’s role concept was multilateralized: in effect, the EU and Germany share a similar foreign policy playbook, as many have characterized the EU itself as a civilian power. At its optimum, this gives Berlin a significant leverage over the CEE countries: the common weight of the EU apparatus and Germany is considerable.