Germans’ Realpolitik
There’s a website german-foreign-policy.com which regularly provides news, insider information, insightful analyses, reviews, interviews with top German politologists, diplomats and politicians.
It gives a very good idea of what Germans’ Realpolitik is all about. They are handling politics based on German-centered, strictly practical rather than idealistic notions, and practice them without any sentimental illusions, only with German interest in mind.
A perfect example is their latest news item, a comment on Montenegro’s referendum for independence:
On Sunday the people of Montenegro vote on leaving the State Union with Serbia. The vote will decide the formal completion of the German-sponsored final destruction of former Yugoslavia. The supporters of secession will profit from the support of Germany and the EU, who have given uninterrupted support to leading personalities in Montenegro for years, in spite of their long-known, obvious, criminal activities in smuggling. Admittedly Berlin would welcome a further isolation of Serbia although the final secession of Montenegro will not have any further decisive significance. In any case, according to political commentators, the State Union with Serbia is “not at all functional”. In the meantime, in a move which lays bare the mainspring of the NATO war, the Germany is working on a plan to improve the utility of South Eastern Europe for businesses from the Western industrial states. The region of powerless mini-states of shattered former Yugoslavia should be put back together again in the form of a free trade area.
…From the end of the war Berlin influenced Montenegrin internal policy in this direction. The most visible expression of this was the adoption of the Deutsche Mark, which became the sole official legal tender in 2000. This enabled the German government to detach Montenegro (then still a constituent republic of Yugoslavia) from the sovereignty of Belgrade.
P.S. By the way, it’s also very telling that german-foreign-policy.com virtually ignores the topic of Belarus [1]. This is a significant indicator that German foreign policy chooses to ignore Belarus and leave it in the sphere of Moscow control.
May 22nd, 2006 at 12:41 pm
So, what it basically says is that not much has changed in Europe in the last 100 or so years …
Germany (and probably Austria too, to some extent) are meddling in the Balkans like there’s no tomorrow, but doesn’t disturb Eastern Slavs as long as they don’t disturb Germany. Baltic states are independent on paper, but in practice are quite dependent on foreign allies. Russia leads a not very clear foreign policy, blames everyone of imperialism, but does exactly the same to her neighbors (Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakstan, Abkhazia). Bolsheviks are a fringe political group, but for some reason everyone keeps talking about them.
It’s been at least 10 years since i studied the history of the early 20th century in school, but as far as i recall it, 1906 looked quite similar.
What will happen in 2014 then?
May 22nd, 2006 at 9:19 pm
“virtually ignores the topic of Belarus”
I dunno but this article on that site states that Germany does want the regime to take a hike http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/55982 They dont ignore Belarus, in fact, that article mentions Belarus 9 times.
May 22nd, 2006 at 10:08 pm
}T{Reme [Q_G]:
German-foreign-policy.com wrote about Belarus
2 articles in 2006
4 articles in 2005
2 articles in 2004
3 articles in 2003.
Just for comparison search for keywords like Ukraine, Poland, Russia…
May 23rd, 2006 at 1:34 am
That’s… pretty much the average as of what most countries write about Belarus really :(
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:40 am
}T{Reme [Q_G]: In this particular context I really don’t care about the number of articles in Bild, Stern, Spiegel, FAZ or any other publication. I think the level of interest on http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/ is a more significant indicator than any of the other mass-media, because it relates to people who are directly involved in foreign policy decision making in Germany.
May 23rd, 2006 at 9:40 am
This is very interesting to read and I am not so naive to say that outside forces do not have an effect on the affairs of other nations, but I still think this stressing Germany’s insistence upon early recognition of independence for Slovenia and Croatia as being one of the main causes for the break-up of Yugoslavia is overstated. The war was well underway when that recognition was given, and can we really claim that the Germans’ desire to break up Yugoslavia was stronger than the will of Slovenes and Croatians themselves? They voted in absolutely massive majorities to declare independence from Yugoslavia, as was their right under the Yugoslav constitution. Internal Yugoslav forces and an understandable lack of will to live with Milosevic were far more instrumental in that country’s break-up than external ones.
May 23rd, 2006 at 10:42 am
P.S. And now they are counting the number of ethnic Germans in international organizations:
“According to Berlin’s estimates, approximately 9.5 per cent of the personnel active in the UN, the EU and other supra-national bodies are of German 0origin, a country representing less than 1.3 per cent of the global population.”
May 27th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
“The vote will decide the formal completion of the German-sponsored final destruction of former Yugoslavia.”
Thank you BiB for what you said, it’s completely true. Also, i’d like to say that before America came into play, we (I’m a Croat) were deeply f**ed, and though i’m sure our emigrants in Germany helped, to say that our freedom was sponsored by Germans is a bit much.
@Administrator … what in gods name do they need to know that number for?
May 27th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
Rea: I have SP2 (Spam Karma 2) that should block spammers. One of the protection means against automatic bots is this “number check”. Sorry for the inconvenience.
January 29th, 2007 at 2:35 am
Realpolitik = practical notions = economy
Politics driven by economy is the way things should go anyway. Not a perfect way but it wouldn’t natural otherwize.
August 27th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Great blog and posts !!
October 10th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Nice work !
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:25 am
Thanks for sharing
February 7th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well. But it was interesting! Look for some my links:
March 24th, 2008 at 6:07 am
I’d prefer reading in my native language, because my knowledge of your languange is no so well.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!