Abstract
The Auswärtiges Amt, Germany’s Foreign Office, houses an elite, professional diplomatic corps that is well-socialized into a cohesive diplomatic culture, which makes for disciplined and coherent foreign policy messaging, sometimes at the cost of flexibility and autonomy. The Foreign Office’s role in decision-making has been eroded by the advent of new bureaucratic “actors” and the growing centralization of policy in the office of the Chancellor. Meanwhile, a combination of new challenges—the refugee crisis, Brexit, Russian aggression, and others—have been unsettling, particularly with the weakening of multilateral institutions, through which Germany prefers to act. The resignation of Angela Merkel as Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader in 2018 and her announcement that she will not seek another term as chancellor add to the uncertainties ahead.
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Notes
- 1.
Over-centralization was a key finding of the 2014 Steinmeier report, discussed below.
- 2.
W.R. Smyser, How Germans Negotiate: Logical Goals, Practical Solutions (Washington: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2003), pp. 11–26. In today’s Germany, “economic diplomacy” is led mainly be the Council for Investment and Trade (a public/private partnership) and the Ministry of Economics, with the Foreign Office in a support role.
- 3.
Lamar Cecil, The German Diplomatic Service, 1871–1914 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976), pp. 104–5 and 226–56.
- 4.
From the diary of Friedrich von Holstein, one of Bismarck’s counselors, as cited in ibid., p. 236.
- 5.
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), pp. 121–31.
- 6.
Eckart Conze, Norbert Frei, Peter Hayes, and Moseh Zimmermann, Das Amt und die Vergangensheit: Deutsche Diplomaten im Dritten Reich und in der Bundesrepublik (Munich: Karl Blessing Verlag, 2011). See also Norbert Frei and Peter Hayes, “The German Foreign Office and the Past,” Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 49 (Fall 2011).
- 7.
Daniel Lewin, “The Decline of Tradition in the German Foreign Service,” The Western Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 4 (December 1966): 653–62.
- 8.
D.C. Watt, “The Reform of the German Foreign Service: The Herwarth and Duncan Reports Compared,” The World Today, Vol. 26, No. 8 (August 1970): 352–58.
- 9.
Ralf Neukirch, “German Foreign Ministry Fights to Stay Relevant,” Spiegel Online, May 4, 2012.
- 10.
Ibid., pp. 22–25.
- 11.
Johan Galtung, “Structure, Culture, and Intellectual Style: An Essay Comparing Saxonic, Teutonic, Gallic and Nipponic Approaches,” Social Science Information, 20, 6 (1981): 829.
- 12.
Ibid., 830–32.
- 13.
The Federal Foreign Office: Facts and Figures (Berlin: Federal Foreign Office, 2018).
- 14.
Ibid.
- 15.
Anke Freibert, “Classifications and Career Development in the German Foreign Service,” SIGMA (Support for Improvement in Governance and Management), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, December 2004.
- 16.
The Federal Foreign Office.
- 17.
Additional DGs focus on budget and personnel, economic affairs, international law, cultural diplomacy and protocol.
- 18.
Interview with the Foreign Office Director-General for Central Services, Berlin, November 1, 2018.
- 19.
The Federal Foreign Office.
- 20.
Interview with a senior German diplomat, recently retired, who served as an oral examination panelist, Berlin, November 2, 2018.
- 21.
Freibert, “Classifications and Career Development in the German Foreign Service.”
- 22.
Ibid.
- 23.
Interviews at the Federal Foreign Office, Berlin, November 1–2, 2018, and at the German Embassy in Washington, November 9, 2018.
- 24.
“AFSA Benchmarking Exercise: Brazil, China, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Mexico, India Selection and Entry Level Training” American Foreign Service Association, Washington, DC, June 14, 2010.
- 25.
Freibert, “Classifications and Career Development in the German Foreign Service.”
- 26.
Interviews with senior German diplomats at the Federal Foreign Office, Berlin, November 1 and 2, 2018.
- 27.
“Foreign Office: Questions and Answers on the Selection of Higher Service.” https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/karriere/auswaertiges-amt/hoeherer-dienst/faq/-/214498, accessed January 12, 2019.
- 28.
Ibid.
- 29.
Interview with First Secretary, Permanent Representation of Germany to the EU, Brussels, October 27, 2016.
- 30.
Lisette Andreae and Karl Kaiser, “The ‘Foreign Policies’ of Specialized Ministries,” in Germany’s New Foreign Policy, p. 40.
- 31.
Freibert, “Classifications and Career Development in the German Foreign Service.”
- 32.
Interview with the Director-General for Central Services, Berlin, November 1, 2018.
- 33.
Training for International Diplomats: Yearbook 2015: https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/blob/1586126/4dbcd121dac8c9e8cc7e9ecc70b90ee1/jahresheft-2015-data.pdf.
- 34.
Interviews at the German Embassy in Washington, December 2016 and November 9, 2018.
- 35.
Jan Techau, “The Steinmeier Review of German Foreign Policy,” Carnegie Europe, March 19, 2015. http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=59422.
- 36.
Freibert, “Classifications and Career Development in the German Foreign Service.”
- 37.
Ibid.
- 38.
Email from Anke Freibert, October 25, 2016.
- 39.
Interview with senior German diplomat, Berlin, November 2, 2018. For a thorough discussion, see Judith Siwert-Probst, “Traditional Institutions of Foreign Policy,” in Germany’s New Foreign Policy, pp. 19–21.
- 40.
Interview with senior German diplomat, Berlin, November 2, 2018.
- 41.
Wolf-Dieter Eberwein and Karl Kaiser, “Academic Research and Foreign Policy-Making,” in Germany’s New Foreign Policy, pp. 4 and 11. See also Lisette Andreae and Karl Kaiser, “The ‘Foreign Policies’ of Specialized Ministries” in ibid., pp. 38–57.
- 42.
Stephen F. Szabo, “Enlarging NATO: The German-American Design for a New Alliance,” in The Strategic Triangle: France, Germany, and the United States in the Shaping of the New Europe, ed. Helga Haftendorn et al. (Washington and Baltimore: Wilson Center Press and The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), pp. 327–49, esp. pp. 330–42.
- 43.
Andreae and Kaiser, “The ‘Foreign Policies’ of Specialized Ministries.”
- 44.
von Ploetz, “New Challenges for the Foreign Service,” p. 75.
- 45.
Andreae and Kaiser, “The ‘Foreign Policies’ of Specialized Ministries,” p. 50; interview with a senior German diplomat who regularly attends these meetings on issues within his purview, Foreign Office, Berlin, November 2, 2018.
- 46.
Andreae and Kaiser, “The ‘Foreign Policies’ of Specialized Ministries,” pp. 43–45.
- 47.
Techau, “The Steinmeier Review of German Foreign Policy.”
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
von Ploetz, “New Challenges for the Foreign Service,” pp. 82–83.
- 50.
Techau, ‘The Steinmeier Review.”
- 51.
“Closing Remarks by Foreign Minister Steinmeier at ‘Review 2014’ Conference,” Auswärtiges Amt, accessed March 8, 2017, http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Infoservice/Presse/Reden/2014/140520-BM_Review2014_Abschlussrede.html.
- 52.
Annegret Bendiek, “The ‘2014 Review’: Understanding the Pillars of German Foreign Policy and the Expectations of the Rest of the World,” Working Paper RD EU/Europe, 2015/05, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, May 2015. See also Katy A. Crossley-Frolick, “Revisiting and Reimagining the Notion of Responsibility in German Foreign Policy,”
International Studies Perspectives 18(4): 443–64, February 25, 2016.
- 53.
Helga Haftendorn, Coming of Age: German Foreign Policy since 1945 (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), pp. 3–4 and 6.
- 54.
Beverly Crawford, Power and German Foreign Policy: Embedded Hegemony in Europe (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).
- 55.
Timothy Garton Ash, In Europe’s Name: Germany and the Divided Continent (New York: Random House, 1993).
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Acknowledgment
The authors wish to thank the following diplomats and scholars who were consulted in researching and writing this chapter: Philipp Ackermann, Helga Barthe, Harald Braun, Anke Freibert, Maria Gosse, Helge Holleck, John Kornblum, Wolfgang Seibert, Klaus Scharioth, and Stephen Szabo.
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Sutten, M., Cousar, C., Hutchings, R. (2020). Germany. In: Hutchings, R., Suri, J. (eds) Modern Diplomacy in Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26933-3_4
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