ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that new identification by assessing public attitudes towards select dimensions of West German security policy, which might be construed as a projection of national identity vis-a-vis the world outside. It argues that the new Republic’s commitment to a foreign policy course of regional integration and East-West cooperation, especially after 1969, afforded post-war Germans a second, equally significant source of positive identification with their own state beyond that of material well-being. The chapter considers the options and limits inherent in the Federal Republic of Germany's (FRG) unique position within the Western collective security system. It reviews competing definitions of the German Question pursued by the main political parties prior to 1989, coupled with a survey of major turning-points in West German security policy development. Citizens shared with their rulers a commitment to FRG membership in North Atlantic Treaty Organization as “the lesser of two evils” in the face of possible Warsaw Pact encroachments.
