ABSTRACT

This chapter presents a theoretical framework for a foreign policy analysis of Ostpolitik. Focusing on Ostpolitik as a specific instance of German foreign policy, the German response to the incompatibility of territory and nation becomes the object of our analysis. The complexity and multidimensionality of the German question manifests itself in the links between domestic and international dimensions. Our approach is thus informed by both foreign policy analysis and constructivist international relations theory. Since the early 1990s, constructivist international relations theory has emerged as a major third school of thought set against neo-realism and neo-liberalism. If anything, and in clear contrast to German–Polish relations, the state and development of German–Czech relations seems to underscore the continuing significance of the so-called German question rather than its resolution even at the level of political elites. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.