German Foreign Policy in the Face of Current Challenges

The article analyzes the features of German foreign policy on the eve of the September (2021) elections to the Bundestag and the gradual overcoming of the crisis consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. The priorities of the foreign policy based on the value approach remain the European and transatlantic vectors, as well as relations with the main system-forming international organizations. The postulates of value are prompting Berlin to increasingly intensify criticism of Russia and China, incl. due to the signifi cantly increased, from his point of view, threats in relation to Germany and other states of the collective West. Germany still relies on France in European politics. Their tandem continues to determine the political and economic processes in the European Union, as well as to infl uence the formation of the EU mechanisms for overcoming the coronavirus crisis. Despite the rapid restoration of constructive relations with the new American administration, a number of controversial issues remain in bilateral relations, including defense spending and the economy. In recent years, Germany has been able to strengthen its positions in Europe and the world and expects to strengthen its role as a global actor, especially in international organizations. Nevertheless, the German expert community critically refers to its current foreign policy status quo. The author explores the latest trends in German foreign policy, gives an assessment of its development after elections to the Bundestag, pays special attention to the prospects for relations with the Russian Federation.

Engaging with Public Opinion at the Micro-Level: Citizen Dialogue and Participation in German Foreign Policy

This article analyzes how and why foreign policy (FP)-makers use dialogue and participation processes (DPPs) with (groups of) individual citizens as a source of public opinion. Taking Germany as a case study and drawing on DPP initiatives by the Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt, AA) since 2014, we analyze the officials’ motivation for establishing such processes and find four different sets of motivation: (1) image campaigning, (2) educating citizens, (3) listening to citizens, and (4) changing the citizens’ role in FP. Our article makes three contributions. First, we provide a novel typology of the sources of public opinion upon which FP-makers can draw. Second, our study points to the importance of, and provides a framework for, analyzing how officials engage with public opinion at the micro-level, which has so far been understudied in FP analysis. Finally, our empirical analysis suggests that both carefully assessing and influencing public opinion feature prominently in motivation, whereas PR purposes are of minor importance. Recasting the citizens’ role in FP gains in importance over time and may mirror the increased need to legitimize FP in Western democracies vis-à-vis their publics.

Military-Political Peculiarities of Germany’s Participation in Resolute Support Operation, 2015-2021

The Afghan direction is rather important for German foreign policy, given the scale and duration (nearly two decades) of German military presence in this Central Asian country. It remains to continue one of the directions of Bundeswehrs usage outside the NATO zone of responsibility. The article tries to explore the specifics of the German military and political-diplomatic tools used in the course of Resolute Support operation. The key research methods are comparative and event-analysis. The paper evaluates the characteristics and the results of the German participation in ISAF activity by the mid-2010s. In this regard it is shown that to a large extent the efforts of the Bundeswehr contingent in Resolute Support were aimed at completing unfinished tasks during the ISAF mission. The new (since 2015) tasks of the German military personal, their determinism, and the peculiarities of their implementation are defined. The article traces the ascending dynamics of the German military presence in Afghanistan. In comparison with Syria and Iraq, taking into account the scale of threats projected from their territory to the Euro-Atlantic community in the mid-2010s, the peculiarities of forms and amounts of the Bundeswehrs use in Afghanistan are demonstrated. The author examines Berlins attempts to maintain its military presence in Afghanistan in conditions when US President Trumps administration and the Taliban (banned in Russia) signed an agreement on the withdrawal of US troops on February 29, 2020. The range of factors that could affect the revision of the White Houses position in the second half of 2020 and early 2021 is defined. During this period, Germany has been trying to keep its military presence in Afghanistan. But after the final decision of the Biden administration on the withdrawal of troops, official Berlin was forced to accelerate the evacuation of its contingent (by July 1, 2021), which largely crossed out the previously declared results of the strategy in Afghanistan. The article concludes by presenting the consequences of the military drawdown in Afghanistan for the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany as a whole.

Az 1687. évi második mohácsi csata egy lehetséges emlékezetpolitikai aspektusa Wilhelm Camphausen egy munkáján keresztül

At the Battle of Harsány Hill at 1687, the united Christian army defeated the Ottoman troops and blocked them to recapture Buda Castle. The so-called “second Battle of Mohács” had numerous symbolic contents, most of them were based on highlighting the similarities and differences between the first (1526) and second (1687) battle. However, the Battle of Harsány Hill was not only a symbolic pair of the Battle of Mohács in 1526 but also appeared as a symbol of various political and geopolitical phenomenons and events of other eras. The geopolitical roots of Wilhelm Camphausen’s depiction can be traced back to the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. In my work, I aimed to decipher the message conveyed by this artwork, in the late 19th century in the light of German foreign policy. After the examination of the biographical aspects of the creative artist and the stylistic features of the work, I monitored the geographical, symbolic and memory aspects of the depiction.

Arctic Vector for German Foreign Policy

Germany updated its Arctic strategy in 2019. It is determined that in the context of achieving global climate goals this region for Germany to be one of the key ones. It is emphasized that the interests of Germany are in the sustainable supply of natural resources from the Arctic. The long-term Germany`s policy is formed by the informing the world community about the risks of further economic development of the macroregion for global climatic and environmental reasons, which is carried out within the framework of national policies by the Arctic countries. Russia is one of the key Arctic countries with which Germany closely cooperates in the region in the economic and scientific spheres. Based on the assessment of Germany's position on Russia’s Arctic strategy (2020), the paper analyzes the ambivalent relationship between the two countries in the Arctic macro-region with elements of confrontation and cooperation. The author concludes that Russia and Germany can productively cooperate in the Arctic at the level of regions and economic entities, using it at the same time as an implicit field for discussing the current complex agenda of bilateral relations