ABSTRACT
For most of Germany’s post-Second World War history, the idea of a foreign policy towards the Middle East conjured up images of a renewed bid for European domination and world conquest. As a result of this continued wariness towards the German state, the strange fungibility of international politics coupled with the abhorrence of the possibility of German troops in conflict against an Israeli state made it all but impossible for Germany to have a Middle East policy outside of the context of its normative institutional obligations. Berlin’s policy towards the Middle East was, therefore, generally geared towards specific actors within the community and could not be accurately labeled as a broad, regional foreign policy. For example, Germany accepted obligations with regards to Israel, developed specific interests with various regional actors, and later supported the concept of Palestinian statehoodgoals seemingly at odds for a general foreign policy orientation towards the Middle East. However, developing a coherent policy towards the Middle East has been an enormous challenge for the entire international community - particularly because the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains one of the primary sources of turmoil in the region and shows no signs of lessening in the near future.
