Germany—Still Not a Civilianizing Power

Abstract

As we have seen in the context of the normalization debate, it is certainly true that some of Germany’s postwar foreign and security policy assumptions have been gradually revised in the course of the 1990s in adjustment to evolving European and international security issues.¹ Yet this evolution need not necessarily be seen to directly contradict Hanns Maull’s civilian power argumentation of the early to mid-1990s. Therefore, and in order to avoid carrying over possible misinterpretations of Maull’s original argumentation, it may—first of all—be worth recalling some of the central tenets of his original work to clear the ground for further analysis and discussion of where Germany’s foreign policy may be heading, if indeed we can assume that Germany’s leadership knows where it is heading. My guess is they do not.