The Diplomatic History Of German Reunification,1989-1990

"German problem" can be described as the most important and the most central issue in cold war's European battlefield.After the World War ?,it basically experienced the formation of two German divisions in 19411949,the struggles over the German issue in 1949-1963,and the "detente" and its predicament of the German problem in 1963-1985.From this history the Germans have clearly recognized that the so-called autonomy of settling the German problem lies only in the shadow of the two superpowers.However,the "mitigation" during the kind of cooperation,consultation and other ways to solve the problem provides a good demonstration path to deal with the German issue in the future.After Mikhail Gorbachev took office in 1985,in order to inherit and carry forward Andropov's reform ideas and further eradicate the old age of Brezhnev's disease,to adjust the Soviet Union's national economic structural which was malformations due to the overexpansion,to avoid Nuclear war brought the overall risk of losing,he put forward to implement a comprehensive reform plan called"Perestroika" on the internal and foreign affairs of the Soviet Union."Perestroika" is to encourage the socialist satellites in Eastern Europe to promote the Soviet Union's style of liberalization of reform and the default them out of the socialist family.The democratization of Poland and Hungary,coupled with the departure of the Federal Republic of Germany "Ostpolitik" to induce a comprehensive outbreak of the crisis of democracy in Germany.With the fall of the Berlin Wall,the German problem has once again returned to the international political arena.The United States,which aims at "overcoming the split of Europe",cautiously supports the reunification of Germany;the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher,who is afraid of the "German national aggressive character," insists on an open opposition to the reunification despite the opposition of the British Foreign Office;France's position is contradictory,privately against the reunification for fear of a destruction to the existing European integration,openly a friend attitude to the unity for fear of undermining the Franco-German mutual trust on this key issues.The Soviet Union is still holding the traditional policy of the two German split,but Gorbachev undifferentiated to encourage the reform of Eastern Europe,together with the Soviet Union's own inability to help the East Germany out of the crisis,making the Soviet Union difficult to "keep the German unity door closed".In an extremely delicate international and domestic environment,federal chancellor Helmut Kohl unexpectedly proposed the "Ten Point Program" aims to achieve the reunification of Germany,by virtue of the plan Kohl established the domestic authority,further diluted the initiative and stability of the Democratic Republic of Germany,strongly resisted the European neighbors' hesitation and opposition,for the Federal Republic of Germany's further action shape a good international environment.Ten Point Program faced European boycott,the United States firmly stand on the side of the Federal Republic of Germany to appease the Soviet Union,to give pressure on British and French.The cooperation of Germany and the United States build a solid external basis on the road to German unification.Kohl's endorsement of the Bordeaux border and his commitment to the French-built path to Europe eventually secured Mitterrand's neutrality on the question of reunification.Thatcher's efforts that draw Mitterrand to form an Anglo-French anti-unification pact then got a failure.At the same time,in face of Kohl's "big step policy" to throw the GDR to the abyss,the Soviet Union not only in internal but also in diplomatic area are powerless.At the end of January 1990,when the four major powers successively recognized that unification was unavoidable,they started to study the negotiation of a framework.The "2 + 4" framework advocated by the US State Department inadvertently fits in with the ideas of France and the Soviet Union.Contacts with the United Kingdom made the State Department firm the "2 + 4" framework rather than the US National Security Council's "1 + 1" or "factual unity" line.When Baker provided it to FRG,the German foreign ministry of the FRG showed the interest but did not give a commitment.Forced by the internal unity of the two de facto process,the British and French quickly accepted the six-party framework and joined the efforts of the United States to persuade Germany to accept the six-party framework,forcing the German Chancellery to express its opposition to the "2 + 4" framework.Baker's Moscow trip successfully Gorbachev's support for the framework.The US State Department and Baker played the role of advocate and facilitator in the formation of the framework.On one hand,the four powers are planning for the "2 + 4" framework.On the other hand,they plans to the security identity,geographic map,and what kind of regional mechanism to restrict potential regional hegemony after German unification.On the question of the agenda of the "2 +4" framework,under the cooperation between the FRG and the United States and the pressure of the unity of the facts,the British and French gradually swung to the FRG and the United States.The meeting of the FRG on the economic and political requirements of the Soviet Union prompted Moscow to make cautious compromises.The "four plus four" agenda(border,political and military,and Berlin,ending the rights and responsibilities of the four powers)was established.On security issues,although the different positions within the United States give the FRG,the United Kingdom and France some policy space,but Germany and the United States' David Camp's reconcile overturned the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Tutzing conception(NATO can't be eastward).The results of the election in East Germany squeezed the political space of Moscow,the decline of the cohesiveness of the Warsaw Pact,the separation of domestic separatist movement energy,the domestic differences in the security issues on the Soviet Union makes it difficult to reunite the cohesive position.From the economic,political,NATO restructuring and other aspects,FRG and the United States motivated the Soviet Union to accept the German-American route and eventually made a success in Soviet Union's Caucasus peak.On the border issue,Kohl,motivated by domestic political candidate,was reluctant to openly upset domestic conservatives,and confirmed that the German-German border between Germany and Germany was an inseparable part of the coin.Poland's Prime Minister Mazowiecki initiated a diplomatic warfare in the international arena has been supported by the UK and France,the domestic ruling coalition continued pressure eventually forced Kohl agreed to invite Poland into the "2 +4" negotiations.The dispute over the border issue is actually the important connotation of the historical reconciliation of the two nations.On the question of what kind of mechanism to restrain the German issue,the pan-Europeanist conception of the Soviet Union was unanimously isolated by Western allies.Europeanism and Atlanticism between France and the United States in the fierce competition and ended in France incomplete concessions.This is mainly manifested in two aspects:the France agreed to convene a NATO summit to jointly discuss the future of the Atlantic Alliance;on the other hand with Germany to accelerate the process of building the European Community and highlight the main status of the European Community.This,in turn,provided a solid basis for the signing of the Maastricht Treaty at the end of 1991 and the transformation of the Community into a European Union.Europeanism and Atlantic controversy also prompted the United States eagerly to promote the transformation of NATO,and to convince the Soviet Union to accept the German NATO status reasons.The Soviet Union which subject to the domestic conservatism showed no compromise in "2 + 4" level,but all rounds of lobbying by the allies also showed the great sincerity and the unbreakableness of the Allies.German-led economic aid to the Soviet Union and the US-led NATO restructuring,this two-track strategy helped Gorbachev and Shevardnadze defeated the conservatives of Moscow and consolidate the supreme authority at the 28th Congress of the Soviet Union.Kohl's Moscow trip removed the last obstacle of the final unification,and the four powers signed the<The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany>in Moscow with two Germans.In general,the success of the "2 + 4" negotiations can't be separated from the solidarity of the Berlin four countries,but also inseparable from the concerns to the interests of Soviet Union.