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German Foreign Policy

Description

Faced with a fragmentation of the established order and an increasing number of crises, Germany is tending to reassess its position in a changing world.

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Publications
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Franco-German relation faces familiar challenge ahead of Macron’s Germany trip

24 May 2024
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Franco-German symbolism, rather than bickering over policy, will briefly take centre stage when French President Emmanuel Macron meets German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin on Sunday (26 May) during a three-day state visit, the first in 24 years. 

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'Depth of Franco-German bond': Macron to meet German president in rare state visit

24 May 2024
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French President Emmanuel Macron will visit his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin on Sunday in what is seen as the highest level of diplomatic courtesy gestures.

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How Macron and Scholz broke the Franco-German alliance at the heart of the EU

24 March 2024
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Breakdown of continental partnership is a threat to Europe – and could be catastrophic for Ukraine. It was meant to be a patching up of the notoriously fraught Macron-Scholz relationship, a “reset”, to borrow Hillary Clinton’s expression.

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“Broken” Franco-German tandem needs Tusk and Trump

15 March 2024
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As the vital relationship between Franco-German leaders Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron appears “broken”, hopes for a sustainable fix rest on the Weimar Triangle and even the return of an old nemesis.

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Macron and Scholz Meet to Patch up Their Fraying Ties

14 March 2024
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Allies fret that Franco-German animosity is undermining western unity over Ukraine. Emmanuel Macron will arrive in Berlin on Friday for talks designed to repair a fractured Franco-German relationship marred by caustic public spats and mutual recriminations over the war in Ukraine.

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Thorns and Alliances. German, French and European Agricultural Policy Between Food Safety and Respect for the Environment

Date de publication
14 December 2023
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Influences and developments within German agricultural policy have undergone significant transformations over the past 70 years, especially in the context of the dynamic Franco-German relations and the pivotal role both nations play in shaping the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). 

Kristina MENSAH Bettina RUDLOFF
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New Impulses for Stagnant Relationships - German-French Ministerial Council Meets in a New Format

Date de publication
18 October 2023
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As the doors of the illustrious Hôtel Beauharnais on Rue de Lille 78 swung open on the evening of 4 October, and the masses streamed into the German Embassy in Paris to celebrate German Unity Day, the reports of the currently strained state of Franco-German relations seemed almost surreal. 

Towards a New European Trade Strategy in Times of Geopolitical Upheaval: The German Perspective

Date de publication
06 October 2023
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As one of the most successful trading blocs, the EU sees itself confronted with the erosion of the global rules-based trading system and trade becoming increasingly weaponized.

Klemens KOBER

EU-Mercosur: An Unsolvable Trilemma Between Competition Rules, Normative Ambitions and Supply Chain Diversification

Date de publication
03 October 2023
Accroche

The EU-Mercosur trade deal was believed to be heading toward the finish. The election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as the president of Brazil, as successor to the right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro, and the Spanish presidency of the European Union (EU), raised hopes for its conclusion. But the reservations expressed by several EU member states and some Latin American countries have dashed hopes.

Marie KRPATA Ana Helena PALERMO

Zeitenwende: The Bundeswehr’s Paradigm Shift

Date de publication
29 September 2023
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, marked a turning point in German defense policy. After thirty years of military downsizing, the Bundeswehr found itself at an extremely low capability level just as a high-intensity war involving a great power was breaking out on Europe’s doorstep for the first time since 1945. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s response was to embrace this “turning point” (Zeitenwende) by launching a major program to reequip Germany’s armed forces.

EU-Mercosur: An Unsolvable Trilemma Between Competition Rules, Normative Ambitions and Supply Chain Diversification

Date de publication
03 October 2023
Accroche

The EU-Mercosur trade deal was believed to be heading toward the finish. The election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as the president of Brazil, as successor to the right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro, and the Spanish presidency of the European Union (EU), raised hopes for its conclusion. But the reservations expressed by several EU member states and some Latin American countries have dashed hopes.

Marie KRPATA Ana Helena PALERMO
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Allemagne d'aujourd'hui 2023/2 (N° 244)

DOSSIER - 60th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty (1963) and implementation of the Treaty of Aachen (2019): where do Franco-German relations stand?

Date de publication
29 June 2023
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On January 23, 2023, France and Germany celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty. This is an opportunity for us to analyze the state of relations between the two countries, and the contribution made by the Treaty of Aachen, which was added in 2019.

Paul MAURICE Hans STARK Claire DEMESMAY, Visiting professor, Alfred Grosser Research Chair, Sciences Po Jérôme VAILLANT

Attention to the Periphery? Germany and the Pacific Island States

Date de publication
21 December 2022
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In September 2020, Germany adopted policy guidelines for the Indo-Pacific that comprehensively set out its approach towards this increasingly important region, seeking to diversify partnerships beyond China.

Alexandra SAKAKI
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Conflicts in the EastMed: From Germany’s and France’s Conflicting Strategies to a Dual Approach

Date de publication
03 September 2021
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Over the past years, the Eastern Mediterranean has become centerstage of an increasingly internationalized and militarized conflict driven by different albeit interlinked issues and an arena for a growing variety of actors to project their geopolitical ambitions.

Germany's Unnecessary Hegemony

Date de publication
22 September 2014
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Based on the realist theory of international relations, this article analyses whether Germany has any incentives to seek (regional) hegemony. It concludes that under the current systemic circumstances – in which the country's survival is ensured by the United States – Germany has no reason to become a hegemon, which is normally a strategy to escape the perils of the anarchic international system. 

Germany and the Arab Spring

Date de publication
13 October 2012
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Much of the analyses of German reactions to the Arab Spring uprisings have focused on Germany’s contentious decision relating to Libya. By siding with the critics of military intervention in abstaining from UNSC 1973, Germany vexed its allies and arguably displayed an astonishing lack of geostrategic foresight and moral rectitude.

Timo BEHR

German-Russian Relations: Balance Sheet since 2000 and Perspectives until 2025

Date de publication
01 October 2012
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The relationship between Germany and Russia, according to official portrayals in Berlin, is one of ‘strategic partnership’ supplemented by ‘modernisation partnership’. The closeness and at times demonstrative cordiality of the relations have given rise to suspicion about Germany being an advocate of Russian interests in Europe for the benefit of its economy but at the expense of Europe’s trans-Atlantic links. 

Hannes ADOMEIT

German-Russian relations : End of the "honeymoon"?

Date de publication
01 September 2005
Hannes ADOMEIT

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Related centers and programs
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The Pariser Platz (Paris Square) on the east side of the Brandenburg Gate at Berlin, Germany
The Study Committee on Franco-German Relations (Cerfa)
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The Study Committee on Franco-German Relations (Cerfa) was created in 1954 by an inter-governmental agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and France, in order to raise awareness of Germany in France and analyze Franco-German relations, including in their European and international dimensions. In its conferences and seminars, which bring together experts, political leaders, senior decision-makers and representatives of civil society from both countries, Cerfa develops the Franco-German debate and stimulates political proposals. It regularly publishes studies through two collections: Cerfa notes and studies as well as Franco-German visions.

 

Cerfa maintains close relations with the network of German foundations and think tanks. In addition to its research and debate activities, Cerfa promotes the emergence of a new Franco-German generation through original cooperation programs. This is how in 2021-2022, Cerfa led a program on multilateralism with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Paris. This program is aimed at young professionals from both countries interested in the issues of multilateralism in the context of their activities. It covered a wide range of themes relating to multilateralism, such as international trade, health, human rights and migration, non-proliferation and disarmament. Previously, Cerfa had participated in the Franco-German future dialogue, co-led with the DGAP from 2007 to 2020, and supported by the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Daniel Vernet group (formerly the Franco-German Reflection Group) which was founded in 2014 upon the initiative of the Genshagen Foundation.