An Analysis Of German Foreign Policy From The Perspective Of Interests Of Constructivism (1990-2005)

After World War II,Germany was divided into two camps,East and West.Since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949,Germany completely broke and rebuilt the national political education on the basis of concentrating on post-war recovery,economic development and ensuring the development of people’s livelihood.Taking the western values of democracy,freedom and justice as the core values and cultivating citizens’ critical thinking of history and independent personality as the goal,it has achieved emotional transformation in social and political life and national identity to the Federal Republic of Germany in half a century.With the viewpoint of constructivism,the spreading and acceptance of common knowledge such as norms and systems within a country encourages people to establish national identity and affects the formation of national interests.The identity and interests of a country are not predetermined factors,but are formed by social construction in international communication,which then forms anarchy in the international society and affects the changes of anarchy characteristics,that is,the so-called actor creates structure.At the same time,the system also affects the actor’s behavior.The change of foreign policy is the external epitome of the change of Germany’s national conditions and national spiritual identity.Since the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany and the reunification of Germany until today,the implementation of German foreign policy has reflected the change from accepting the input of foreign norms in all aspects and internalizing them into its own national interests to trying to export its own value norms by various means.After Germany’s reunification,the government guided the gradual construction of the new national identity of the residents of the former Democratic Republic of Germany to the Federal Republic of Germany,and basically realized domestic stability and integration.With the guidance of constructivist theoretical paradigm,this paper discusses the steady adjustment of foreign policy during the two administrations of Chancellor Kohl and Chancellor Schroeder.On the one hand,it hopes to improve its international status and pursue normalized foreign policy expression;on the other hand,it hopes to become a normative exporter and exert its strength to further promote the process of world civilization.At this turning period,we can find that Germany adheres to the basic model of multilateralism and seeks the national demand of “normalization” of diplomatic status that matches its own strength.At the same time,under the guidance of the post-nation-state thought,Germany practices the concept of global governance that transcends the management mechanism of nation-state to solve global problems and crises in the process of European integration.These two diplomatic ideas show the pursuit of world political power from the perspective of material interests and the pursuit of post-nation-state international relations from the perspective of spiritual interests.Germany’s foreign policy shows a complex state in which traditional diplomacy and global diplomacy are intertwined.Germany’s national interests are still mainly in Europe.The stable development and eastward expansion of the European Union are closely related to Germany’s geopolitical interests.At the same time,it is also an important interest of Germany to have a greater voice on the world stage on the basis of maintaining the transatlantic partnership with the United States.In terms of security interests,Germany adhered to the framework of NATO,linked its own security interests with other NATO allies,participated in the extraterritorial activities of NATO and the United Nations,lifted the military restrictions on sending troops overseas through constitutional judgments,and further realized the "normalization" of the country.Germany takes an active part in the organizational actions of the United Nations,from involving in the field of economic development to participating in the reform of the United Nations or even“Attempt to become a permanent member of the United Nations”,so as to become a world political power.In addition to traditional geopolitics and military security diplomacy,Germany attaches more importance to global cooperation fields such as culture,foreign aid and environmental protection than before.By taking on more humanitarian international responsibilities,Germany has deepened the recognition of German value norms and behavior patterns by other countries in the world,and further promoted the socialization process of norm export.In its cultural exchanges with foreign countries,Germany shows a more positive and confident attitude,and pursues a "homogeneous" identity as a partner on the premise of safeguarding world peace and fully respecting democracy,pluralism and human basic rights.The German government transformed its international image through its foreign development cooperation and assistance policy,showed the humanitarian concern of the Federal Republic of Germany,and formed a positive public opinion evaluation in the international community.Take active political measures in the field of international environmental protection,play a leading role in international environmental protection issues with their own actions,play a key role in the signing and negotiation of international treaties,and win more international discourse rights and international recognition in the field of environmental protection.The contradiction between idealism and realism in the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany is actually an attempt and exploration of the practical path of the constructivism theoretical hypothesis that “anarchy can be changed”.