Germany, America, Europe: Forty Years of German Foreign Policy (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 257 In each case, Eichenberg presents the relevant data culled from extensive public opinion polls conducted over the past forty years. There are more than a few surprises: European and American perceptions are often very close, Europeans are by and large content with NATO, and Europeans do indeed trust (and maybe even like) Americans. Eichenberg also breaks down the available data into subgroups. For example, he compares views of younger and older generations of Europeans. Eichenberg is keenly interested with the problems posed by the so-called "successor generation." In many cases Eichenberg analyzes public opinion through voting patterns, noting for example that conservatives in most countries have perceived the Warsaw Pact as more powerful and hostile than their liberal counterparts. In addition, Eichenberg compares opinions of European elites to those held by the general population and concludes that elites are much more committed to the Western alliance and less susceptible to opinion swings in reaction to events. All this information may seem a bit overwhelming. However, this is not just a book of facts and numbers. Eichenberg relates the public opinion polls to historic events and decisions. In one sense, Eichenberg presents a history of the NATO alliance, with polls to highlight certain trends and movements. In another sense, Eichenberg uses the polling data to test numerous hypotheses about the way modern democratic societies deal with foreign policy challenges. Third, the polls represent a starting point for Eichenberg's own synthesis of a European world view. This book is written very clearly and concisely, and Eichenberg's style flows well and reads comfortably. The bibliography is extensive, and the end notes are comprehensive. Perhaps the book's only drawback is the timing of publication. Many of the polls cited were taken in the early 1980s, during an especially turbulent time for NATO. Given the stunning events in Eastern Europe over the past year, some might legitimately question the work's relevance. But Eichenberg's book has great value despite recent changes. Both as a historical record and as an insight into the European mind, it behooves the serious European security scholar to examine Eichenberg's data and conclusions. One hopes Eichenberg will update this book with new polls on post-Cold War European perspectives. Germany, America, Europe: Forty Years of German Foreign Policy. By Wolfram F. Hanrieder. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989. 509 pp. Reviewed by Andrew Denison, Ph.D. Candidate, SAIS Germany, lying in the heart of Europe and bifurcated by the frontier between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, has been central to the development of East-West relations and the political-economic shape of Europe in the postwar era. The division of Germany and Europe, resulting from the distribution of power after 258 SAISREVIEW the war—if not the conscious intent of statesmen—had become increasingly accepted over the past four decades as the natural state of affairs in Europe. Recent events, however, culminating in the dramatic opening of the Berlin Wall, call into question the finality of this settlement. The breathtaking metamorphosis of the political scene in Eastern Europe challenges both the durability of the postwar order and the role Germany has come to play in it. Wolfram Hanrieder has provided an invaluable study of the postwar development of West German foreign policy in its European and Atlantic contexts, giving the reader a solid foundation on which to evaluate the prospective developments in Germany and Europe. Professor Hanrieder is an experienced analyst ofWest German affairs, having published a number ofworks on the foreign policy ofthe Federal Republic and on international security issues, including The Stable Crisis. In analyzing Federal German foreign policy, Hanrieder looks at four major themes: security in the Atlantic context, Germany's partition and Ostpolitik, international economic relations, and the domestic politics of foreign policy. Despite this thematic approach, Hanrieder very ably shows the interconnection of the issues involved. He places them in an overall political context, arguing that "(m)any military and economic issues contested between East and West and within the West were essentially political issues couched in technical terms." Hanrieder traces the origins of West German foreign policy back to the constraints and opportunities in the early...