Between the Blocs: the Two German States in International Politics, 1955–1990 German Historical Institute London Bulletin, Vol 41, No
German Historical Institute London BULLETIN ISSN 0269-8552 Franz-Josef Meiers: Between the Blocs: The Two German States in International Politics, 1955–1990 German Historical Institute London Bulletin, Vol 41, No. 1 (May 2019), pp73-101 BETWEEN THE BLOCS: THE TWO GERMAN STATES IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, 1955–1990 FRANZ -J OSEF MEIERS I. Introduction: Between Delineation and Entanglement Contemporary historians in the 1990s generally agreed to take a more integrated look at the history of divided Germany after the war. 1 But it is striking that studies concentrate on economic, technological, environmental, and socio-cultural developments, 2 while we still lack a comparative investigation of the classic areas of state activity, for - eign and security policy. Since German unification, numerous stud - ies have been published (in English and German) on the four areas that are relevant to the foreign and security policy of the two states: the role of the two German states in East–West crisis management; in NATO and the Warsaw Pact; in arms control; and in the project of building a common European home. But all deal almost exclusively with the Western or the Eastern part of post-war Germany. This essay is part of a project sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG), ‘Zwischen Abgrenzung und Verflechtung: Eine vergleichende Unter - suchung zur deutschen Nachkriegsgeschichte in den Bereichen der Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik 1955–1990’ (Between Delineation and Entanglement: A Comparative Analysis of German Post-War History in Foreign and Security Policy 1955–1990). Trans. Angela Davies (GHIL) . 1 Ulrich Mählert (ed.), Die DDR als Chance: Neue Perspektiven auf ein alt es Thema (Berlin, 2016); Detlef Brunner, Udo Grashoff, and Andreas Kötzing (eds.), Asymmetrisch verflochten? Neue Forschungen zur gesamt deutschen Nach - kriegsgeschichte (Berlin, 2013); Frank Möller and Ulrich Mählert (eds.), Ab - grenzung und Verflechtung: Das geteilte Deutschland in der zeithistorischen Debatte (Berlin, 2008).
[Show full text]