ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses socialist Bulgaria’s parallel political and economic relations with the FRG and Denmark: their (re)activation in the early 1960s, peak around the mid-1960s, deterioration in the aftermath of the crackdown on Prague Spring in 1968, and subsequent efforts at recovery. Assessing bilateral relations comparatively, the chapter highlights the different degrees of diplomatic autonomy that Bulgaria enjoyed vis-à-vis the FRG and Denmark as well as the divergent pressures that led to the post-1968 chill. Bulgarian – Danish relations developed under the radar of the Soviet superpower but the economic gains were limited. The West German powerhouse, in contrast, offered much higher economic benefits to Bulgaria but diplomatic relations were constrained by geopolitics. Shaped by divergent considerations of costs and benefits, Bulgaria’s overtures towards Denmark and the FRG differed both on the level of policymaking (the degree of party oversight) and on the level of policy-implementation (the scope of autonomous initiative held by state operatives). The comparison therefore exposes not only the range of Bulgaria’s strategies for manoeuvre in its opening to the West but also the range of interpretations of foreign policy objectives within its party and state apparatuses.
