8 - Cooperation and Conflict in German and American Policies toward Regions Outside Europe

Summary

Translated by Robert Kimber and Rita Kimber

The impact that issues outside of Europe had on the relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United States has not yet been studied in a comprehensive or systematic way. One reason for this omission is the very complexity of the subject. Another is that these questions normally did not play a major role in shaping West Germany's foreign policy and its relationship with the United States. Only at times of crisis did Third World issues suddenly take center stage in German-American relations and, in certain cases, create serious problems for Bonn's foreign policy. However, the most important reason for limited German attention to these questions is that the United States and the “old” Federal Republic played qualitatively very different roles in the international arena until 1990. Since the beginning of the Cold War, the leading Western power saw itself in a global conflict with the Soviet Union and its communist system. The policies of the Federal Republic, founded in 1949, were by contrast dominated by the division of Germany and the East-West conflict as it played out in Europe.