ABSTRACT
This chapter explores moves by successor generations to establish a more direct link between their domestic identities as Germans, that is, as constitutional-patriots living under a Western-style democracy, and the identity attributed to Germany beyond its own borders. The Western security dilemma of the 1980s was in many respects an American dilemma. Both documents affirmed a commitment to the European security based on a strategy of nuclear deterrence while professing the ultimate importance of steps aiming to ease tensions and promote arms control. Despite waves of violence on the domestic front, the New Germans favor a concept of national security rooted in the ideal of a “positive” peace—reaching beyond the mere absence of war—and that is good news indeed. The Federal Republic regained its sovereign statehood, its right to define and pursue its self-defined collective interests, by permanently foreswearing nationalism of the all-or-nothing, genocidal variety.
