Description
This essay reviews four recent books on Germany’s foreign policy with emphasis on the era of Angela Merkel. The evaluation is based on their (a) added value to scholarship on German foreign policy, (b) theoretical sophistication and contribution to IR, (c) relevance also for the post-Merkel era. I argue that the books bring in valuable insights regarding the enduring, yet also changeable role of anti-militarism and provide knowledgeable analyses of the failure of Germany’s policies towards Russia. Importantly, they enrich also broader literatures, especially in their focus on discursive change (Stengel 2020) and state power in the EU context (Fix 2021). I demonstrate that these ideas help us understand also Germany’s struggle to redefine its role after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and offer more nuanced analyses of Germany’s specifics, staying clear of treating the country as a priori exceptional.
