ABSTRACT

German domestic attitudes about foreign policy remain confused, as do foreign attitudes about a more powerful German role. German land and people were governed or contested by other states for centuries. Unlike Great Britain or France, or even the more distant United States, the geographic and ethnic entity that has come to be known as Germany has no centuries-old tradition of foreign policy and no sense of long-established interests. The United States also shaped the foreign security arrangements of the new West Germany. It not only established and sustained the strategic balance with the Soviet Union but it created, organized, and commanded the main structures of the alliance. West Germany functioned comfortably and effectively within the Western system and within its global reach. As American power became less monolithic, Germany became a founding member of the system's governing board, the Group of Seven.