A New Exploration To "Ostpolitik"

With the gradual aggravation of the Cold War between the East and West, as a defeated nation but also the vanguard of the Cold War, Germany was once again divided into two countries. The two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union respectively controlled the Federal Republic of Germany and German Democratic Republic, while the East and West Germany staged a tense confrontation with each other. German reunification is the ultimate goal, but also a difficult problem for the Federal Republic of Germany. How to end the division of Germany? The former Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, Konrad Adenauer, implemented the "Hallstein Doctrine", tried to complete the reunification by the support of Western allies. The development of the situation meat that, on the premise of that the Cold War had went into the detente stage,"Hallstein Doctrine" would only isolate West Germany, made the achievement of reunification impossible. In the late1960s, early1970s, the West German Chancellor Willy Brandt changed the strategy to carry out "Ostpolitik"by "taking close to promote change", the implementation of the policy is marked by a series of treaties signed with Eastern countries, including the Soviet Union. However, what hid behind these results were complicated international relations variables, as well as the judgment of politicians on the international situation. When the development of the Cold War went to the late1960s, the superpowers began to seek detente with each other as well as in the whole world, but under the surface, there were still some tense and delicate alliance relations. Such as, the United States was dissatisfied with the detente action made by the Federal Republic of Germany, the Soviet Union criticized the behavior of the East Germany, China and Czechoslovakia disagreed with the chauvinism of Soviet Union’s. In the environment of the Cold War, any country which made the unusual action would affect the situation as a whole, the implementation of "Ostpolitik" must cause the suspicions of the alliances, as well as great concerns of the East camp countries. How to ease the doubts of the allies, get the support of the allies were necessary for Brandt to deal with. History shows that, although the implementation of the "Ostpolitik" was very hard, which still had unexpected influence. Brandt’s "Ostpolitik", buried rigid "Hallstein Doctrine", broke the diplomatic isolation, created new era of the German Foreign history. Politically, the "Ostpolitik" promoted the process of detente in the world, contributed to world peace, improved the political status of Germany, reduced the degree of attachment to the United States; economically, the growing East-West trade increased the sales market of the Federal Republic of Germany; when it comes to the impact on international relations, the "Ostpolitik" played the role of the milestone in world history, promoted the detente of the Cold War, accelerated the development of world political and economic trend towards a multipolar. In the long run, the "Ostpolitik"to some extent, laid the foundation for the reunification of Germany.There are six parts in the paper. The introduction focuses on the meaning of the topic, the research purpose, existing research overview. The first chapter describes the background of "Ostpolitik", which is the relations between "Ostpolitik" and the main big countries, how FRG dealt with these countries. The relations variables contain the Soviet Union and the United States, the United States and West Germany, the Soviet Union and East Germany, Britain and France and West Germany, while increasing the analysis of the role of China. The second chapter focuses on the implementation of "Ostpolitik", including how FRG went along with its alliances and eastern countries, as well as the factors of ideology and safety, in the end of this chapter, the paper also describes how was the Moscow Treaty signed, the author wants to restore the implementation process of "Ostpolitik"The third chapter discusses the topic from the view of the domestic political and economic changes in FRG, as well as the relation between "Ostpolitik" and German reunification. The Fourth chapter explores the role of Brandt played on the implementation of "Ostpolitik" and its influence on Brandt. The last part of the paper is the academic evaluation on "Ostpolitik", as well as the conclusion of the whole paper. At the end are the Chinese and English References.