Germany's unification, its eastern neighbors, and European security

Ever since Germany's unification, assessing its consequences for the country's eastern neighborhood has been problematic. ¹ At first, the collapse of the Cold War order generated anxiety about the possible resurgence in Central Europe of a predatory great power, exemplified in an extreme form by American “offensive realist” John Mearsheimer's imagery of a Germany “surrounded by weaker states” and ever ready to use “military force against Poland, Czechoslovakia, or even Austria,” presumably giving them “strong incentives to acquire nuclear weapons for protection.” “For a country to choose not to become a great power is a structural anomaly,” observed neorealist Kenneth Waltz. ² Better attuned to reality were the experienced analysts of the Munich-based Radio Free Europe, whose contemporary reports from open sources are still among the best assessments of what was happening on the ground. ³