Overview

From the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s West German foreign policy underwent substantial transformations: from bilateral to multilateral, from reactive to proactive. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was an ideal setting for this evolution, enabling the Federal Republic to take the lead early on in Western preparations for the conference and to play a decisive role in the actual East–West negotiations leading to the Helsinki Final Act of 1975. Based on extensive original research of recently released documents, spanning more than fifteen archives in eight countries, this study is a substantial contribution to scholarly discussions on the history of détente, the CSCE and West German foreign policy. The author stresses the importance of looking beyond the bipolarity of the Cold War decades and emphasizes the interconnectedness of European integration and European détente. He highlights the need to place the genesis of the CSCE conference in its historical context rather than looking at it through the prism of the events of 1989, and shows that the bilateral and multilateral elements (Ostpolitik and the CSCE) were parallel rather than successive phenomena, parts of the same complex process and in constant interaction with each other.

Full Product Details

Author:   Petri Hakkarainen
Publisher:   Berghahn Books
Imprint:   Berghahn Books
Volume:   10
ISBN:  

9781800737310

ISBN 10:   1800737319
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   09 December 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations Acknowledgements Chapter 1. Introduction: Era of Negotiations European Détente The CSCE German Foreign Policy On Structure and Sources Chapter 2. 1966-69: Incubation of Strategies The Early Years and the Eastern ‘Propaganda Circus’ The Budapest Appeal: ‘We Could Have Drafted it Ourselves’ Consultations Abroad, Electioneering at Home Nobody Expects the Finnish Initiative Promises of East-West Cooperation or an Instrument of Deutschlandpolitik? Chancellery versus Auswärtiges Amt Emphasis on Linkage: Bahr’s Foreign Policy Plans on the Eve of the Election Bonn and the Security Conference during the Interregnum Conclusion Chapter 3. 1969-70: Bilateral Leverages and European Security Western Support for the Linkage with Deutschlandpolitik Horse-Trading in Moscow Rethinking the Linkage Strategy Berlin Surpasses Other Preconditions Discovering the Potential of the CSCE Conference on Security or Conference on Cooperation? Conclusion Chapter 4. 1970-71: Transition to Western Multilateralism Following the French Lead on Berlin Linkage Defending the Berlin Precondition in Lisbon Divergent Interpretations of the ‘Successful Conclusion’ Nothing Quiet on the Western Front Broadening the German Horizon in the NATO Framework From America’s Advocate to the Main Proponent of EPC Conclusion Chapter 5. 1971-72: Towards a European Peace Order? The Decline of the Linkage between the CSCE and Deutschlandpolitik Hesitating on the Berlin Precondition Blackmailing the Finns? An Inner-German Shotgun Wedding Europeanisation of Ostpolitik In Defence of the Eastern Treaties and Bonn’s Sovereignty A New Flow of German Activity Peaceful Change, Self-Determination of Peoples and Military Security Freer Movement: Change through Rapprochement? Berlin as a CSCE Location? Avoiding Bilateralism Conclusion Chapter 6. 1972-75: Deutschlandpolitik at the Conference Alphabet Diplomacy in Dipoli Peaceful Change, Act 1: Defending the Moscow Treaty Peaceful Change, Act 2: Enter Genscher Peaceful Change, Act 3: Commas for the National Interest Basket III: Human Contacts Follow-up and Berlin Conclusion Chapter 7. Conclusion: Evolution instead of Revolution Sources and Bibliography Index

Reviews

Hakkarainen's study is grounded in a solid knowledge of the secondary literature on modernity and theories of humor. One of her important claims is that... while humorists poked fun at various aspects of the Viennese urban modernity in the making, humor itself was a product of this early modernity. - H-Habsburg Hakkarainen's monograph derives from a prize-winning dissertation, and the accolades are well deserved. The research base is admirably wide-ranging...[This is] an excellent study that constitutes essential reading for historians of detente in Europe...One can only hope that other researchers will write as fluidly and skillfully about those conferences--or about that other grindingly slow multilateral framework of the 1970s and 1980s: the talks on MBFR (Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions). Hakkarainen's book provides a worthy model. - German Studies Review Petri Hakkarainen deserves commendation for his thorough and well-researched account of West German government strategies and actions with regard to the CSCE between 1966 and 1975. This is true in particular for his refusal to write deterministic history from hindsight...This book is a very solid, reliable, and convincing piece of history on policy deliberations and diplomatic negotiations conducted by the West German government. - American Historical Review Hakkarainen's study makes an important historiographical contribution alongside its empirical one. The author admonishes his readers: the CSCE together with the new Ostpolitik, which in his account are intimately linked, would indeed prove instrumental in ending the Cold War and bringing about German reunification, but this does not at all justify reading history backwards from the watershed years of 1989-91...For Hakkarainen, the infiltration of triumphalist narratives into histories of the CSCE, as well as of detente more broadly, must therefore be resolutely opposed and the history of the Cold War ought to be written 'without prejudices based in the events of 1989-90. - German History West-Germany and the CSCE, 1966-1975is concisely written and develops our understanding of the pre-history of the CSCE, the FRG's role vis-a-vis its Western allies and the complex linkages between its Ostpolitik and its interests in the CSCE. - Journal of Contemporary History In a balanced way the author blends German views with those from Britain, France, and the United States, using these countries' official documents as well. His book represents a very serious piece of scholarship and is interesting to read. It excels with a novel hypothesis, a very careful use of varied archival sources, and an ability not to lose his argument in the wealth of material. - Helga Haftendorn, Free University, Berlin I don't know of any other book that deals so thoroughly with German CSCE policy in the years described here...The author has done a vast amount of research, using documents from different archives and different countries...While he is of course not the first scholar to write about the origins of the CSCE, the author does contribute new elements and interpretations to the topic. - Benedikt Schoenborn, University of Tampere, Centre for Advanced Study

Hakkarainen's monograph derives from a prize-winning dissertation, and the accolades are well deserved. The research base is admirably wide-ranging...[This is] an excellent study that constitutes essential reading for historians of detente in Europe...One can only hope that other researchers will write as fluidly and skillfully about those conferences-or about that other grindingly slow multilateral framework of the 1970s and 1980s: the talks on MBFR (Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions). Hakkarainen's book provides a worthy model. * German Studies Review Petri Hakkarainen deserves commendation for his thorough and well-researched account of West German government strategies and actions with regard to the CSCE between 1966 and 1975. This is true in particular for his refusal to write deterministic history from hindsight...This book is a very solid, reliable, and convincing piece of history on policy deliberations and diplomatic negotiations conducted by the West German government. * American Historical Review Hakkarainen's study makes an important historiographical contribution alongside its empirical one. The author admonishes his readers: the CSCE together with the new Ostpolitik, which in his account are intimately linked, would indeed prove instrumental in ending the Cold War and bringing about German reunification, but this does not at all justify reading history backwards from the watershed years of 1989-91...For Hakkarainen, the infiltration of triumphalist narratives into histories of the CSCE, as well as of detente more broadly, must therefore be resolutely opposed and the history of the Cold War ought to be written 'without prejudices based in the events of 1989-90. * German History West-Germany and the CSCE, 1966-1975is concisely written and develops our understanding of the pre-history of the CSCE, the FRG's role vis-a-vis its Western allies and the complex linkages between its Ostpolitik and its interests in the CSCE. * Journal of Contemporary History In a balanced way the author blends German views with those from Britain, France, and the United States, using these countries' official documents as well. His book represents a very serious piece of scholarship and is interesting to read. It excels with a novel hypothesis, a very careful use of varied archival sources, and an ability not to lose his argument in the wealth of material. * Helga Haftendorn, Free University, Berlin I don't know of any other book that deals so thoroughly with German CSCE policy in the years described here...The author has done a vast amount of research, using documents from different archives and different countries...While he is of course not the first scholar to write about the origins of the CSCE, the author does contribute new elements and interpretations to the topic. * Benedikt Schoenborn, University of Tampere, Centre for Advanced Study

Hakkarainen's study is grounded in a solid knowledge of the secondary literature on modernity and theories of humor. One of her important claims is that... while humorists poked fun at various aspects of the Viennese urban modernity in the making, humor itself was a product of this early modernity. * H-Habsburg Hakkarainen's monograph derives from a prize-winning dissertation, and the accolades are well deserved. The research base is admirably wide-ranging...[This is] an excellent study that constitutes essential reading for historians of detente in Europe...One can only hope that other researchers will write as fluidly and skillfully about those conferences-or about that other grindingly slow multilateral framework of the 1970s and 1980s: the talks on MBFR (Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions). Hakkarainen's book provides a worthy model. * German Studies Review Petri Hakkarainen deserves commendation for his thorough and well-researched account of West German government strategies and actions with regard to the CSCE between 1966 and 1975. This is true in particular for his refusal to write deterministic history from hindsight...This book is a very solid, reliable, and convincing piece of history on policy deliberations and diplomatic negotiations conducted by the West German government. * American Historical Review Hakkarainen's study makes an important historiographical contribution alongside its empirical one. The author admonishes his readers: the CSCE together with the new Ostpolitik, which in his account are intimately linked, would indeed prove instrumental in ending the Cold War and bringing about German reunification, but this does not at all justify reading history backwards from the watershed years of 1989-91...For Hakkarainen, the infiltration of triumphalist narratives into histories of the CSCE, as well as of detente more broadly, must therefore be resolutely opposed and the history of the Cold War ought to be written 'without prejudices based in the events of 1989-90. * German History West-Germany and the CSCE, 1966-1975is concisely written and develops our understanding of the pre-history of the CSCE, the FRG's role vis-a-vis its Western allies and the complex linkages between its Ostpolitik and its interests in the CSCE. * Journal of Contemporary History In a balanced way the author blends German views with those from Britain, France, and the United States, using these countries' official documents as well. His book represents a very serious piece of scholarship and is interesting to read. It excels with a novel hypothesis, a very careful use of varied archival sources, and an ability not to lose his argument in the wealth of material. * Helga Haftendorn, Free University, Berlin I don't know of any other book that deals so thoroughly with German CSCE policy in the years described here...The author has done a vast amount of research, using documents from different archives and different countries...While he is of course not the first scholar to write about the origins of the CSCE, the author does contribute new elements and interpretations to the topic. * Benedikt Schoenborn, University of Tampere, Centre for Advanced Study

Author Information

Petri Hakkarainen is the Political Director at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Prior to that, he worked for over five years as the Director of Foreign and Security Policy at the Office of the President of Finland. During his career at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs since 2006 he has been stationed in Washington, Berlin and Helsinki, as well as at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam. He received his doctorate in Modern History from the University of Oxford in 2008. In 2009 his dissertation was awarded the Willy Brandt Prize for the 'advancement of outstanding young scholars' by the Chancellor Willy Brandt Foundation.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions