ABSTRACT
This article argues for more attention to the strategic component of the chancellor’s leadership. It analyses and assesses Helmut Kohl’s strategic skills and choices with reference to EMU, which from early 1990 emerged as the central policy project of his chancellorship. It is argued that the chancellor’s main role was neither as policy entrepreneur nor as chief negotiator on technical contents. Kohl was, above all, the animateur behind the project, providing it with historical legitimacy, energising German negotiators and giving them sustained political direction. But vision was only one aspect of Kohl’s strategic leadership skills. No less important were his skills in seizing and retaining the initiative and in controlling technical experts. Above all, the chancellor was concerned to control the pace and content of EMU negotiations in a manner consistent with domestic political interests and with avoiding being seen as acting at the behest of the French. As a strategist, Kohl was motivated by German interests but defined those interests in terms of a vision of Europe.
