Germany: Hegemony of Europe - Term Paper Example

?GERMANY: HEGEMONY OF EUROPE s Introduction Germany after post-reunification became a democratic post-national state in comparison to its peers in Europe and the global arena. Germany as a country was strongly founded on states confederation referred to as the European Union (EU). The federation allowed joint persuasion of national sovereignty with the members of the union. This greatly distinguished the present German state from the former, which was an authoritarian and military state. The former Germany before reunification was governed on the principles of realism extreme theory, which theory postulates that, “Everything belongs to the state, neither nothing is outside nor above the state.”i Through the political philosophy of fascists, every human life dimension was to be ruled by the state. Nevertheless, there exists some relationship between the current and the former state. Being a constitutional order, welfare and a federal state democratically, the German Reunited Federal republic utilizes traditions that were present in the nineteenth century. Similarly, it responds to the equal and universal suffrage and the culture of the parliament that was introduced in the period of German Reich. A continuity of geography is evident. Thus, as the outcome of Germany’s infrastructure and economy, the nation has become the Euro Zone de facto power. This has been achieved without utilization of military power or border crossing in malice. The paper documents the utilization of soft power by Germany and how its antinationalism and ideals have supported it to become extremely powerful in the current global and European geopolitics.ii Analyzing the Use of Soft Power by Germany Germany recognises the difference between influence and power.iii The power of Germany’s re-emergence since reunification has ignored a form that is unique. Germany’s current assertive tendency in soft power projection capabilities and peacekeeping operations and leadership persuasion reflects threat perception sensitivity, and lessons historically learned from its past power misuse. In that case, Germany is regarded as a non traditional power. This is because of the less threatening nature of peacekeeping missions. Germany have utilised its advance military knowhow in peace keeping process both in Europe and outside Europe. The utilization of the country military knowhow in peace keeping initiatives has necessitated current status. In addition, the process is overtly less self-interested than other forms of military intervention.iv Thus, Germany as a country advocates for the utilization of various dimensions of non-military ways for boosting security governance and with the option of using military tools only when diplomatic options fail. There is minimum misuse of the country resources in unnecessary wars hence creating conducive development environment. In the world today, amongst the Western powers, Germany plays a critical role in refining and debating on the effective combination of hard and soft power in power preferences exercised in the world political arena. The United States perceives the utilization of its military in peace keeping as being of great significance. The manifestation of integration of the soft and hard power is a German creation that has impacted very positively in Europe thus portraying Germany as a formidable power in the European continent. On the contrary; it views the use of soft power as being counterproductive in reference to strategic interests of the Americans. Germany and other European states conceive the use of soft power as a component that is ideal for security governance. The assurance of an attractive security is one of the most important factors contributing to Germany’s modern ranking in Europe Germany power dimensions after 1989 is quite amazing. To begin with, the global capabilities of Germany have relatively changed since 1989 as it has gained greater influence in regional and global issues. Germany being a middle power is entirely not interested in developing a global major role. In Europe, it is the power that is dominant among the Russia and the United States. Such a realist perception gives a clue in Germany’s foreign policy analysis. Germany has a task of reshaping Europe in correlation to its preferences. However, the reshaping would result to overall structure disturbance in terms of security relations. Moreover, apart from being categorized as a rising economy, it has passed its peak economy. Germany should move towards safeguarding its resources as a nation and limit its dependence on check-book diplomacy. Over time, the diplomatic nature of Germany might be forced to be status-quo oriented and extremely defensive rather than being revisionist. Through the utilization of soft power, Germany remains vulnerable with regards to its structure. However, the vulnerabilities are at a reduced level. For instance, Germany’s major threat is from Russia, which comes in the form of a nuclear attack. To deter this threat, Germany should encourage initiatives of protecting itself from its resource destruction. For purposes of safeguarding its trade, Germany needs assistance from the European Union. In addition, its orbit adversarial developments have triggered its sensitivity. With its eastern borders remaining highly permeable, Germany’s sensitivity towards uncontrolled migrations, unrest, civil strife, economic crises, terrorism and transitional crime has increased more than it was earlier. Irrespective of these threats, Germany remains on the path of instigating its infrastructure and the economy wealth to guarantee its citizen immortal protection. Power bases in attitudes and perceptions that are harboured by others. The ideologies and policies of a nation can exert a considerable influence in its power perceptions and attitudes. From the foregoing arguments, Germany’s power strongest increase resulted in the soft power era. Germany is perceived by other countries as an honest broker who advocates without strong ambitions that deviate from the status quo. Through the accumulated benevolence, Germany has been able to leverage resources of power in a more efficient and effective way. The developed trust in Germany’s infrastructure and economy by foreign country has attracted foreign investors in the country which has instigated the presence raise in power. How Historically German Ideals and Anti-Nationalism Has Aided Germany in Their Current Rise to Power since Reunification of East and West In 1989, Germany adopted the anti- nationalism ideology. This was contrary to their past way of operation as they were for the nationalist ideology. Their transformation from nationalist to anti-nationalist ideology was facilitated by the past historical experiences. The change of their sentiment started after the reunion of the East Germany and West Germany in 1989 to 1990. The anti-nationalist ideology has the idealist form of embracing the world community and categorizing themselves as world citizens. With the ideology of anti-nationalism, Germany has rejected world violence and advocates for peaceful coexistence between the world citizens. According to them (Germany country) perpetual conflict are hazardous to the world economy and the entire world business peace. Nevertheless, Germany is not against the concepts and important of the terms country, national boundaries, and statesv. With reference to Marx theory, the working classes do not have neither a geographical boundaries nor belong to any particular country. Marx stated that, the working class belongs to the world and their unity is the only solution to the long time fought liberation. He further stated that, the bourgeoisie use the geographical boundaries to distance the world workers to remain the world economic dominant class. Marx advocated for the elimination of national boundaries through the concept of anti- nationalism. His idea was supported by Engels who was for the opinion of elimination of nationalist systems and adoption of one unitary world. The adoption of the anti-nationalism policy and other international ideals by the Germany country has greatly impacted to its rise in the political, economic, and military powers. Additionally, Germany has utilized the reunification of the East and West for its own benefit. Its cordial relationship from within and with other countries with minimum involvement in both internal and external conflict has necessitated its development both economically and politically. Currently, without the present and contribution of the unified Germany country, the European continent is mortalvi. In 1961, the Germany country separated into two countries, the East and the West Germany. However, this was reinserted in 1989 when Germany residents demonstrated in the country’s streets condemning the separation and advocating for anti- nationalism. They were against the German Democratic Republic which was responsible of separation and against reunion. The reunion of the East and West is commonly known by German citizens as ‘the fall of Berlin wall’. The failure of the German Democratic Republic was necessitated by economic and political factors. The movement to reunite the West and the East was fronted by the Soviet Union and its forced allies. Despite the problem in calculated by the separation of the West and the East, the German Democratic Republic was opposing the move to reunite Germany. As a result of resistant, most of East German residents opted to leave the East to the West. In the 1989 summer, more than 120,000 people left to the West Germany while others moved to Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The increased pressure forced the GDR government to comply with the citizens’ demand. To respond to the demand the government came up with new policies and laws for reunion in November 9th 1989. During the thirty years of separation, citizens from both the east and West Germany encountered very severe violation of their fundamental right from the government institution and organs. They were denied their freedom of expression and there was severe sanction from government critics. The introduction of the anti-nationalism policy by the people’s power in 1989 to 1990 led to the achievement of their long standing freedom. There was unity, justice, and freedom in the new reunion. Due to the exploitative experience of humanitarian suffering during the thirty years of separation period, the new Germany government has policies and laws which ensure the human basic rights protection. Human right violation is the worst crime in the modern Germany judicial jurisdiction and its consequences results to life imprisonment. Therefore, the anti-nationalism ideology adopted by the Germany government has very redeeming consequential benefits to the human rights protection in the modern Germany. The rectification and improvement of the judicial structure and presence of workable and coherent constitution have lifted the country into a European most powerful country. The anti-nationalism policy adopted by Germany in 1989/1990 has very remarkable impact to the country’s economy. Before the reunion of the West and the East, the GDR government had exhausted it reserves resources and was planning to get an external loan for its sustainability. Citizens were suffering out of increased economic living standard. There was increased economic corruption which led to the exhaustion of the country’s revenues. The infrastructures were practically demisted. The means of economic productions were collapsing and youths were educated but unemployed. In general, the entire economic status of the West Germany was at a mess. After the reunion, all the above vices were turned into opportunities. The Germany residents living conditions drastically improved. Currently, Germany has the best living standard where its resident basic needs are catered for by the government. The country has turned from beggar’s country in 1980s to renders country. The entire Germany economic condition is very superb. Germany is the core financier to the European Union. From the past historical experience, the country has adopted very productive economic measures to facilitate economic development and discourage economic destruction. There are very limited loopholes in Germany economic policies and laws which lead to economic corruption. The reunion which was catalyzed by the anti-nationalism ideology in 1989 and 1990 is the fuelling factor toward the Germany economic empowerment. Politically, Germany has the world most matures politic. Currently, it is under very rare and specific cases would Germany involve itself into a conflict with other countries. The country advocate for diplomatic way of solving issues as it’s the policy of the anti- nationalism. This is different from other economically powerful countries. They also have very working and practical administration structures. The presence of the current political discipline in Germany has its roots in the historical events. In 1989, before the reunification of the West and East, the Germany resident had opted to migrate to other countries. The threat and attempt for emigration was one of the facilitating factors which fastened the reunification process. On the other hand, the government structures at that time were very complicated to adjust. Restructuring the administration structure took very long period of time. Therefore, the restructuring complications experienced during the reunion time necessitate the development of the current flexible Germany government structures. The anti- nationalism also led to the transfer of the Germany political position from social dictatorship to the modern parliamentary democracy. The modern Germany social market economy was a result of the historical experience of centralized state directed economy. Hence, the historical past which led to the adoption of the modern anti-nationalism policy in Germany has led to the development of the Germany country into a very politically powerful country in the world. On social issues, Germany leant a lot from the experience of separation. In the separation time, the urban areas where completely congested with very poor sanitation and social amenities. Hospitals were poorly equipped with unprofessional social health workers and doctors. It is also during this time where more hospitals were closed for failure to meet the required standards. The mortality and morbidity rate was very high during this time. The poor social welfare forced the Germany citizens to demand for reunion. The policy of anti-nationalism which facilitated reunion changed significantly the German social life. Currently, Germany has one of the best social amenities in the world. There are health schemes for all categories of people. The primary and secondary educations are free while there is dispensation on higher education. The urban areas social amenities is one of the best in the world and the developed country tour Germany for navigation. The social development in Germany was brought about by the past historical experiences as well as the adoption of anti-nationalism policy. The superb social welfare has a very signification input to current Germany. There are very minutes expense on treatments of preventable diseases which has necessitate proper reserves in other development sectors. Conclusion The past historical experiences served as a stepping stone towards the Germany economic, social, and political development. Taking the Germany current political, social, political, and military position, it is very difficult to belief it never worn the Second World War. On the other hand, with the current Germany laid down laws on human rights protection, its sound like rhetorical stories to learn that, dictatorial leaders like Adolf Hitler ruled in Germany. Additionally, the adoption of the anti-nationalism policy in Germany is the core factor towards its development into powerful country in Europe continent and most economically influential world country. Change and continuity in Germany foreign and domestic policies has been exhibited since the reunification of East and west. Under Schroeder and Kohl governments, continuity is the sensitive word for policies that are foreign. However, significant changes have been developed in the security policy and German military. Germany incorporates the use of soft power and hard power in its daily agendas. For instance, it is now participating in various missions such as peace keeping. Germany indulged itself in allied force operations, peace keeping and substantially contributed to the war led by U.S in their efforts to terrorize Afghanistan. Thus, countries should employ both soft and hard power in solving of problems. However, hard power should only be employed when soft power has failed to yield results. The presence of prudent soft and hand power in conjunction with modern and improved infrastructures are the core contributors to the country’s current status. Read More