By Leon Hadar
Since the collapse of the Berlin War and the reunification of Germany in 1990, a lingering debate has been taking place in Berlin and in other Western capitals about the role that the Germany would or should play on the world stage in the post–Cold War era.
Officials and pundits have stressed that Germany needs to become a “normal” international power and start exerting influence that is commensurate with its enormous economic might. According to the conventional wisdom, unless Berlin embraces a more activist foreign policy and employs its political and military power to advance its interests and values, it is destined to become a bigger Switzerland, its national security dependent on decisions made by its Western allies and its Russian neighbor.
But while the “new” Germany has clearly emerged as the economic engine of the European Union, it has yet to proclaim a coherent post–Cold War foreign-policy doctrine. Instead, Berlin has maintained a somewhat manic-depressive posture, making in some instances critical decisions have had dramatic impact on international developments while in other instances adopting a more passive stand by responding to outside pressures.
In fact, chronicles of the wars of succession in the former Yugoslavia tend to ignore the important role that Germany had played in the events leading to the civil war there, when it decided to recognize Croatian and Slovenian independence in December 1991, which in turn led to the eruption of the war.
Source: nationalinterest.org
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