Skip to main content

Conceptions of Détente and Change: Some Non-military Aspects of Security Thinking in the FRG

  • Chapter
European Polyphony

Abstract

One of the basic questions for this study is whether Theo Sommer of Die Zeit is correct in concluding after Chancellor Kohl’s 1988 visit to Moscow: They are all Genscherists now’.1

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes and References

  1. Among the best descriptions of this interesting episode (the zero/double-zero debate in the FRG and especially in the government) is that of Berthold Meyer: ‘Viel Lärm urn Null und Doppel-Null. Eine chronique scandaleuse’ (‘Much Ado About Zero and Double Zero: A chronique scandaleuse’) in Vorgange, no. 5 (September 1987) 36–48. Details of the tricks and manoeuvres within the government parties were offered by der Spiegel throughout the period, and unflattering comments were heard from die Zeit and Neue Zurcher Zeitung.

    Google Scholar 

  2. See Egbert Jahn, Pierre Lemaitre and Ole Wæver, ‘European Security: Problems of Research on Non-military Aspects’, Copenhagen Papers, 1 (1987).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Action theory: Ole Karup Pedersen, Udenrigsminister P. Munchs opfattelse af Danmarks stilling i International Politik (Copenhagen: Gads Forlag, 1970). Inertia: Kjell Goldmann, Change and Stability in Foreign Policy: The Problems and Possibilities of Détente (Princeton University Press, forthcoming).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Ideology: Walter Carlsnaes, Ideology and Foreign Policy (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986);

    Google Scholar 

  5. and Sasson Sofer, ‘International Relations and the Invisibility of Ideology’, Mil lenium, vol. 16(3) (1987) 489–521.

    Google Scholar 

  6. ‘Foreign Policy Eras’ (a ‘step-model’ of regimes’ mode of adaptation): Hans Mouritzen, Finlandization: Towards a General Theory of Adaptive Politics (Aldershot: Avebury, 1988). More generally on cognitive factors: Goldmann, Change and Stability and Mouritzen, Finlandization. (On the question whether this is a tendency in foreign policy theory, see my review of Goldmann and Carlsnaes, forthcoming in Journal of Peace Research.)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Josue V. Harari (ed.), Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-Structuralist Criticism (New York: Cornell University Press, 1979);

    Google Scholar 

  8. Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (London: Verso, 1985);

    Google Scholar 

  9. Jaques Derrida, Writing and Difference (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978); and several other books by Derrida.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict (New York: Harvard University Press, 1960) 34ff and 71. See also the ‘bastion strategy’ in Mouritzen, Finlandization (Note 4) 78ff.

    Google Scholar 

  11. That freedom is, for Willy Brandt, the fulcrum appears cogently from his ‘vv/r sind nicht zu Helden geboren. Ein Gespräch über Deutschland mit Birgit Kraatz (Zürich: Diogenes Verlag, 1986) for example 57ff, 107ff and 148ff. See also his Menschenrechte misshandelt und misbraucht (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1987) and People and Politics (London: Collins, 1978) 501 ff. An example of the view that power is not necessarily productive is the reaction to President Reagan’s actions and tone in the early 1980s, summed up in the (often-cited) words of then Chancellor Schmidt: ‘We can afford no gestures of strength and no doughty demonstrations of stead fastness. We’ve had a noseful of that sort of thing’. Here quoted from G. Craig and A. George, Force and Statecraft (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983) 148.

    Google Scholar 

  12. It will be noted that these basic security political orientations are presented as sharing a basic structure. This I have tried previously to present in the form of some semi-semiotic figures (‘Sikkerhedsfigurer i vesttysk debat, 1983–1987’ (‘Figures of security in West German debate, 1983–1987’) in J.J. Jensen (ed.), Europa i Opbrud (The Break-up of Europe) (Esbjerg: Sydjysk Universitetsforlag, 1988) 189–221. However, I now consider this conception to be inadequately developed and prefer to circulate a draft to those interested in the possibility of working on the semiotic structure of security (‘A Few — Somewhat Critical — Notes on the concept of Common Security: Part II’, unpublished paper).

    Google Scholar 

  13. For an overview of the various elements of Deutschlandpolitik, see Rudolf Horst Brocke, Deutschlandpolitische Positionen der Bundestagsparteien: Synopse (Erlangen: Erlanger Beiträge zur Deutschland politik, 1985). This book does not show the inner logic of the positions, but the specific arguments and positions. It is thus complementary to a project of the present type.

    Google Scholar 

  14. For example, Manfred Wörner in Bulletin, 5/2 (1987) 107.

    Google Scholar 

  15. In the deployment debate, this was a crucial argument for Dregger (CDU) and Waigel (CSU) — Die Nachrüstungdebatte im Deutschen Bundestag, Hrsg. von Freimut Duve (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1984) 41 and 84.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Christian Hacke, ‘Die ost- und deutschlandpolitische Konzeption der parlamentarischen Opposition des 6. Deutschen Bundestages im Spannungsfeld zwischen Adaption und Alternative’ in Egbert Jahn and Volker Rittberger (eds), Die Ostpolitik der BRD (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1974) 29–52. Kjell Goldmann, Détente. Domestic Politics as a Stabilizer of Foreign Policy (Stockholm: Department of Political Science Report no. 1, 1984) 60–7.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Richard von Weizsäcker, Die deutsche Geschichte geht weiter (München: dtv, 1985) (original version, 1983) 12.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Gunter Holmann in Die Zeit. 27 February 1987, 5.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Brandt, People and Politics (Note 11) 495. Helmut Schmidt in Die Nachriistungsdebatte, 92ff. Helga Haftendorn, Sicherheit und Stabi lity (München: dtv, 1986) 20ff and 102.

    Google Scholar 

  20. For example, von Weizsäcker’s: ‘Die Deutsche Geschichte’, (note 14) 58ff. Klaus Böiling quotes Genscher as follows: ‘The FDP will have no part in the dangerous simplification that good and evil may be divided neatly by system’, in Bonn von aussen betrachtet (Stuttgart: DVA, 1986) 137ff.

    Google Scholar 

  21. See Egbert Jahn, ‘The Tactical and Peacepolitical Concept of Détente’, Bulletin of Peace Proposals (1981/1) 33–43; Johan Galtung, There are Alternatives (Nottingham, 1984) 40–8 and 69–80.

    Google Scholar 

  22. ‘Die Chance besteht’, Die Neue Gesellschaft (1987/5) 412. This is developed at length in Bahr’s small book, Zum europäischen Frieden: Fine Antwort auf Gorbatschow (Berlin: Corso bei Siedler, 1988).

    Google Scholar 

  23. This is forthcoming in V. Harle and P. Sivonen (eds), TAPRI Yearbook, 1989 (London: Francis Pinter, 1989).

    Google Scholar 

  24. The most thorough attempt to deal with this is Reinhard Mutz, ‘Gemeinsame Sicherheit: Grundzüge einer Alternative zum Abschreckungsfrieden’, in Egon Bahr and Dieter Lutz (eds) Gemeinsame Sicherheit. Idee und Koncept. Bd. 1. (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1986) 83–157.

    Google Scholar 

  25. An interesting meeting that took place before the drafting of the common paper is described by Carl-Christian Kaiser, ‘Wandel durch Wettbewerb?’ in Die Zeit, 7 March 1986;

    Google Scholar 

  26. and by Peter Bender, ‘Sicherheitspartnerschaft und friedliche Koexistenz’ in Die Neue Gesellschaft (1986/4) 343–6. The common document was published among other places in Frankfurter Rundschau, 28 August 1987. Among the many interesting comments following, see Die Zeit, nos. 36 and 38, 28 August and 11 September — and especially Der Spiegel from 31 August 1987 with a most interesting interview of Eppler (SPD) and Reinhold (SED).

    Google Scholar 

  27. Erhard Eppler, ‘Friedenspolitik und Ideologic’ Mediatus (1986/4) 1, 9–13. This is included in his new book, Wie Feuer und Wasser. Sind Ost und West friedensfähig? (Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1988). The book does not add much to the article, but its existence does show that the issue of ideology can be presented as a general framework for understanding the situation. Thomas Meyer, ‘Ein neuer Rahmen für den Ost-West-Dialog’, Die neue Gesellschaft (1987/10) 870–7.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Egon Bahr, ‘Macht und Ohnmacht Europas in den Perspektiven der Allianz-Arbeitsteilung zwischen den USA und Westeuropa’, in Die neue Gesellschaft, vol. 34/3, 1987, pp. 221–7, ref. to p. 225; ‘Die Chance’ (Note 27) 412.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Wörner: ‘Gemeinsame Werte — gemeinsame Schicksal’, Europäische Wehrkunde (1987/1) 11, and ‘Begrenzte Kooperation mit Moskau, aber keine “Sicherheitspartnerschaft”’, Europäische Wehrkunde (1986/4) 195–200 (especially 196); General Hans Joachim Mack: ‘Weichenstellung ins nächste Jahrtausend’, Europäische Wehrkunde, 19–27 — see especially the figure on 22. See also Kohl in Das Parlament, 13 June 1987, 13; Genscher in Bulletin, 9 August 1984, 817 and ‘Toward an Overall Western Strategy’ (Note 15), 46; Karsten Voigt, ‘Die Funktionen von NATO und Warschauer Pakt auf dem Weg zur Sicherheitspartnerschaft’, Die neue Gesellschaft (1985/2) 134–9 (135); Reinhard Mutz ‘Das Harmel-Princip. Fossil oder Wegweiser einer politischen Strategic der NATO?’, Die Neue Gesellschaft (1985/2) 101–6; Peter Glotz, ‘Mehr Sicherheit durch FOFA?’ in Europäische Wehrkunde (1987/4) 195–9.

    Google Scholar 

  30. See, for example, Helga Haftendorn, Sicherheit und Entspannung. Zur Aussenpolitik der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1955–1982 (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1983) 269ff.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Gunter Gaus: ‘we must sit tight with the fact that peace in Europe, strengthened by relative détente, will for the foreseeable future be tied to the unconditional recognition of the status quo and the current political tenancy’. ‘Western Europe needs a stable Eastern Europe to survive, and vice versa’. (‘A Peace Policy for Germany’, in R. Steinke and M. Vale (eds), Germany Debates Defense (New York and London, 1983) 97–116; quoted from 108 and 109). Klaus Böiling speaks out sharply against any form of destabilisation (Bonn von aussen (Note 23), especially 182–91). He even warns against spelling out, for example in speeches in the Bundestag, ‘the insurmountable disparities between the systems’ or the ‘unjust character’ of the DDR state (183ff). Gaus and Böiling are both influential social-democrats close to Schmidt, and both former leaders of the ‘permanent represen tation’ in East Berlin (the almost-embassy).

    Google Scholar 

  32. Reprinted in Die Neue Gesellschaft (1985/11) 1003–11, and in H. Ehmke, K. Koppe and H. Wehner (eds), Zwanzig Jahre Ostpolitik (Bonn: Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, 1986) 279–82. In the latter book — a Social Democratic compendium on détente and East policy — Ehmke’s article, together with one by Hans-Adolf Jacobsen, constitute the section on ‘Die humane Dimension’! Jacobsen’s article is primarily a plea for contacts, confidence-building and especially the demolishing of enemy images (‘Begegnungen in Osteuropa 1965–1985: Erfahrungen — Einsichten — Perspektiven’, 293–308).

    Google Scholar 

  33. Hans-Dietrich Genscher, ‘Wir müssen an der Brucke des Vertrauens mitbauen’, in Die Welt, special section ‘Welt Report’, 21 October 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Here quoted from then minister of Defence Manfred Wörner, Bulletin, 24 November 1987, 1116.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Christiane Rix, ‘New’ and ‘Old’ Thinking — Prospects and Limits of a New Security Policy in Europe. The Case of Both Germanies, paper presented at the Symposium ‘Central Problems of Peace and Conflict Research’, Goethe Institute in collaboration with Centre for Peace and Conflict Research, Copenhagen, 7–8 November 1988, 9.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Ernst Martin, Zwischenbalanz: Deutschlandpolitik der 80er Jahre (Stuttgart, Bonn Aktuell, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  37. Similar claims were put forward, very shortly after the Kohl government came to power, by Pierre Hassner, as a theoretical possibility: 308 in his ‘Zwei deutschen Staaten in Europa’ in Werner Weidenfeld (ed.), Die Identität der deutschen (Munich: Hanser, 1983) 294–323. It is of course hotly debated whether the SPD would have achieved more or less in the same situation. See the debate in Parliament on 31 October 1987, where the SPD gave a positive evalua tion to parts of the government policy but claimed they would have been able to do much more. Das Parlament, vol. 37, no. 44 (31 October 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  38. Wilfried von Bredow and Rudolf Horst Brocke, Das deutschlandpolitische Konzept der SPD, Erlanger Beiträge zur Deutschlandpolitik (1986) especially 12ff.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 1989 The Centre for Peace and Conflict Research

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Wæver, O. (1989). Conceptions of Détente and Change: Some Non-military Aspects of Security Thinking in the FRG. In: Wæver, O., Lemaitre, P., Tromer, E. (eds) European Polyphony. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20280-5_13

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics