Evolving German Geopolitik And Its Manifestation In The Contemporary Eurozone

Crisis

Evolution Of Geostrategy And German Geopolitik

The world was plagued with wars and conflicts even prior to the first world war and this
volatile situation was topped off with the idea of Geopolitik taking root during the inter war
period. Territorial expansion formed the foundation of projection for a nation-state and the
geopolitics of the world assumed an ephemeral role with the trajectory towards hegemony
becoming the fulcrum of nations as well as regions functional policy.

Karl Haushofers ideas took centre-stage for Germany during an era when it was led by the
focal national policy of German Imperialism. The dynamic shifts in the variegated aspects of
the geopolitics of the world educed a German Geostrategy in the form of German Geopolitik.
Haushofer, an ardent student of the ideas of Sir Halford Mackinder, underscored the
significance and relevance of geography in understanding national interest and in
promulgating national policy. He likes, for instance, to quote a remark by the English
geographer and statesman, Sir Thomas Holdich, about " the absolutely immeasurable cost of
geographical ignorance." And he never tires of citing Ovid's "fas est ab hoste doceri" (it is
right to learn from the enemy), and Disraeli's "at last the best informed one wins."1

Haushofers conception of German Geopolitik has been the product of a consolidation of

ideas that germinated over a period of time with the writings of Oswald Spengler, Alexander
Humboldt, Karl Ritter, Friedrich Ratzel, Rudolf kjellen and Halford Mackinder. Haushofer
with his idea of a Lebensraum(living space),and his conception of autarky partially effected
Nazi foreign policy outlining the design for German dominance in the inter war period.
Geostrategy is both descriptive and analytical and adds a normative element in its strategic
prescriptions for national policy(Mattern,1942:40-41)2 The idea of geopolitik assumed the
relevance of an elixir to compliment the existentialist system that essentially worked on the
psyche of the preyed upon by the international order German populace.

1 Hans W. Weigert, Haushofer and the Pacific (Geopolitik des pazifischen ozeans by Karl
Haushofer),Foreign Affairs, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Jul., 1942), Council On Foreign Relations, pp.732

2 M.A.Chaudhary, Gautam Chaudhary ,Global Encyclopedia Of Political Geography, Global Vision

Publishing House,New Delhi,pp.90
Hitler though could draw masses with his oration and the parallel Gobbelsian propaganda that
complimented it, it was however Karl Haushofers ideas that piqued academicians interests
and moulded the conceptions that assumed the prerogative in an effusively aggressive
German Geostrategy . Geopolitik was in essence a codification and consolidation of older
ideas given a scientific gloss.3The occurrences of the inter war period like the expansionist
policies of Nazi Germany underlined Haushofers World View 4.The Molotov-Ribbentrop
Agreement was the idea of strategic relevance that augured fear for Mackinders conception,
while fulfilling Haushofers ideas.

Haushofer defined geopolitics as the science of earth relationships to political

developments and Geopolitik was distinguished from political geography in the sense that
while political geography studied the state from the viewpoint of space, geopolitics studied
space from the viewpoint of the state.5The conceptions of Lebensraum, Autarky, Strategic
Control of key geographic territories took root with Haushofers Geopolitik, assuming the
role of a German geostrategy that emerged as an offshoot of the larger German imperialistic
national policy. Haushofer affiliated himself with lebensraum, or living space, a concept
originally espoused by Friedrich Ratzel ,which relates human groups to the spatial units
where they develop.6 Hitlers idea of territorial expansion was fuelled by the conception of
Mackinder and Haushofer with their theories on the idea of a Heartland.

Hitler expounded on his functioning by the idea of Germanys need for living space in the
east. Lebensraum possessed an aura of scientific respectability which it derived from the high
academic reputations of its originator and some of its twentieth century proponents. 7 It also
assumed a befitting role during the interwar period for a formerly imperialistic country with

3 Ibid

4 Brian W. Blouet, Global Geostrategy: Mackinder And The Defence Of The West, Frank Cass an
imprint of Taylor and Francis group, new York,pp.3

5 Ramesh Dutta Dixit, Political Geography-The Spatiality Of Politics, Tata Mcgraw Hill Publishing
Company, new delhi.pp.23

6 See www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/492152/friedrich-ratzel#ref12055, accesed on 10-11-12

7 Woodruff D.Smith,friedrich ratzel and the origins of lebensraum, German Studies

Review,vol.3,no.1(feb 1980),pp.51
an ambitious leader and his conservative ideological framework and the scientific
fundamentals evinced relevance in the idea. This conception has left a rich legacy with
Germanys idea for its lebensraum being concretised even in a new world of Europe that
surfaced after the wars with Germanys economic prowess arming the country with an idea
that has found revived recognition in the contemporary world scenario. For almost twenty
years people became fanatical over the sacred words Lebensraum and Autarky, their
imagination was fired by the vision of a virile continental power bloc headed by Germany8 .

The history of German Imperialism saw its inception in the intermittent Franco-German wars
and the national character that has been a part of German political thought has propounded a
legacy of German geostrategy mired in regional hegemony with a intricate nexus between the
Geoeconomic and Geopolitical aspirations. When Ratzels formulation of lebensraum first
appeared, it was taken by Non-German commentators to be simply a justification for limitless
German aggressive aims. It was in fact a great deal more than that, but it was unquestionably
imperialistic.9The sagacious input of geopolitics scholars have been instrumental in evincing
a national policy for Germany that has marked an indelible place for Germany in
international politics.

Apart from lebensraum, Haushofer also expounds on the trade related aspects like autarky by
explicating the inception of protectionism and self-sufficiency in a world that was reeling
under the extreme duress extended by the great depression of the 1930s and wilsonian
idealism thrived on the idea of economic interdependence, the demise of which was
exemplified by the failure of the league of a nations.

Control of strategic choke points and appropriate defense of the hemisphere also forms the
peripheries of the nucleus of the idea of German Geopolitik. Theoreticans like Mackinder,
Ratzel, Spykman, Mahan and Corbett surmised the relevance of the geopolitical elements in
understanding the presence of the nation-state in the contemporary global power structure,
Their perspicacity and prudence has been the yardstick in comprehending the aspirations of
leaders and their national and international policy. The ideas of German Geostrategy can be
well understood with it running complimentary to the more efficacious American Geostrategy

8 Ewald w.schnitzer,German Geopolitics Revived, The Journal of politics,vol.17.no.3 (Aug 1955),pp.

9 Woodruff D.Smith,friedrich ratzel and the origins of lebensraum, German Studies

Review,vol.3,no.1(feb 1980),pp.63
of the cold war era, largely propounded by Keenan in his containment policy and also the
conception of rollback.

German imperialism has been the bedrock of the formulation of the German Geostrategy and
its neo-imperialistic tendencies in the contemporary times has brought into focus the rich
history of their idea to control the world. This makes the cerebral comprehension of a
imperial Germany extremely relevant in the existent international order.

Co-relation of Imperialism and German Geopolitik

The German rupture of civilization as National Socialism and the Holocaust have been
dubbed , continues to generate enormous fascination and controversy.10The idea of a Reich or
an imperial power witnessed germination in German international interests in the seventeenth
and the eighteenth centuries and the ensuing expansion of the German empire with
progressive and dynamic leaders coagulating the international space in general and the
European regional position in particular which further explicates the histrionics of
contemporary European fracas. The conception of the world in the creation of an empire
carries connotations of autonomy, self-assertion, and to an extent also of power,the notion of
Reich does, too, as well as triggering reminiscences of ostensible german medieval
splendor.11

The history of German Imperialism dates back to the Franco-Prussian wars that dominated
the world order during the 17th and the 18th centuries when the constant quest for world
domination by these two nations unraveled the hankering of leaders to become invincible.
However, the inter world war period exemplified the need for a nostrum in an era of the birth
of geopolitical academicians ideas, enunciating the relevance of Geopolitics and Geostrategy
in deciphering the intricacies of a realist order rooted in a pseudo-liberal system. Haushofer
became the pioneer of the extreme right foreign policy that was the locus of Hitlers
nationalist policy. He was an empiricist according to whom geopolitics was the understanding

10 Frank Biess And Mark Roseman ,Introduction in Frank Biess,Mark Roseman,Hanna

Schissler(eds), Conflict, Catastrophe And Continuity: Essays On Modern German History, Berghahn
Books ,United States

11 Brian Vick, Imperialism, Race And Genocide At The Paulskirche,Origins,Meanings,Trajectories

in Michael Perraudin,Jurgen Zimmerer With Katy Heady (eds),German Colonialism And National
Identity,Routledge Publications,New York,pp.10
of the earth-boundedness12 of political processes and institutions. Extreme nationalism has
been largely the denouement of perceived national chauvinism of these early geopolitical
theoreticians , ethnocentrism manifested in cultural and racial ascendancy en route to the
accretion of the national objective, the nucleus of which comprises of indomitable power in
the global system. This objective has formed the nucleus of German Geostrategy, be it
imperialist geopolitics during the Nazi regime with territorial expansion being the focal point
of the nationalist Geostrategy, or the contemporary shift from geopolitics to a notion
conceived by a contemporary strategist Edward Luttwak designed in the form of
Geoeconomics, he foresaw a world where states as territorial entities would continue to
compete with each other though now in Geoeconomic and not Geopolitical conflicts.
Luttwaks vision of geo-economics is strongly statist but other geo-economic visions stress
the relative decline of states and the importance of transnational flows and institutions.13

Though the relatively nascent geopolitics of Germany in the 19th and 20 th centuries had left
the indelible footprints of the realist paradigm, West Germany in the cold war era and the
modern day Germany has been the causatum of a more flexible and economy based neo-
liberal inclination which substantially empiricises the significance of the geoeconomic
standpoint that luttwak proposed. Super-Nationalism refers to the neo-imperialist strategies of
nation-states which aspire to being hegemonic in relation to other nations either in a world-
region or worldwide.14This idea of super-nationalism has been well-exhibited in the
mushrooming contemporary neo-liberalist world order wherein aspiring hegemons with
control over sophisticated mechanisms have been acting as the vanguard with the inception of
various economic groupings in the international system. The G-8, the G-20 nations all have
been at the helm of articulation of international policies that would evince the possibility of
regional hegemony for the respective aspirants for hegemony, this aspect aptly exemplified
by the maneuvers of Germany in Europe.

12 Gearoid O Tuathail, Imperialist Geopolitics-Karl Haushofer And German Geopolitik in Gearoid O

Tuathil, Simon Dalby And Paul Routledge (eds),The Geopolitics Reader (second edition),Routledge
Publishing House,New York.pp.24

13 Ibid,pp.7

14 Maurice Roche,Nations,Mega Events And International Culture, in Gerard Delanty, Krishan

Kumar (eds),the SAGE handbook of nations and nationalism, Sage Publications
limited,London.pp.265
Contemporary German Geostrategy And Geoeconomics

Geostrategy has been a significant periphery effecting a countrys foreign policy that has been
essentially nationalist with it being the locus of a nations political and military planning
emphasizing majorly the efficacy of the countrys geography. Geostrategy entwines the
availability of resources, the nations national and international objectives, its capability for
sustenance and its projection in the international system for the effectuation of its nationalist
aspirations. Theorizations of Ratzel, Kjellen And Haushofer well explicates the understanding
of German Geostrategy with respect to the contemporary world.

Ratzels conception of the organic state theory was an offshoot of his contribution to the
larger framework of cultural geography wherein he corresponds the state to an organism
existent in nature. State boundaries are natural or organic entities that must grow outward for
the state to survive. Strong governments, according to this view, would seek to adjust their
natural boundaries by conquest and annexation. However, ratzel emphasized that his
description was an analogy, not the basis for state policy15. this aspect of the geopolitical
world well theorized further by the ideas of Rudolph Kjellen. Kjellens conception of
geopolitics has been the rightful and rational extension of geography and power for its own
security bringing in the roots of the contemporary neo-realist paradigm. Adolf Hitlers
foreign policy, rather nationalist policy was a consequence of the distorted interpretation of
these ideas of Ratzel and Kjellen. Ratzels seven laws of State growth served as welcome
justification for imperial expansion; hence, the birth of the German imperial-thinking16. The
notion of Geopolitik propounded by Haushofer entrenched itself as the bedrock of imperialist
Germany with a strong inclination towards Social Darwinism.

Geopolitik demonstrates the dependence of all political developments on the permanent

reality of the soil17 was the fundamental thought that built the idea for Haushofer. He
underscores that Germany must emerge out of the narrowness of her present living space
into the freedom of the world. The smaller the living space of a nation, the greater the need

15 R.W.Mccoll, Encyclopedia of World Geography, Volume 1,Facts On File Inc.,New York,pp.105.

16 See http://polscicity.blogspot.in/2008/08/paper-on-friedrich-ratzels-organic.html

17 Karl Haushofer, Why Geopolitik? from The World of General Haushofer (1942),in Gearoid O
Tuathil, Simon Dalby And Paul Routledge (eds),The Geopolitics Reader (second edition),Routledge
Publishing House,New York.pp.33
for a far-sighted policy to keep the little it can still call its own 18 The relative power of a
nation is what will concretise its position in world politics, the most significant factor of
hegemony in the system.

These fundamentals of Geostrategy have been the cornerstone for the furtherance of an idea
adapted essentially from Luttwaks theorization of the concept of Geoeconomics. Luttwak
opines that, the deference that armed strength could evoke in the dealings of governments
over all matters, notably including economic questions, has greatly declined, and seems set to
decline further. The methods of commerce are displacing military methods, with disposable
capital in lieu of firepower, civilian innovation in lieu of military- technical advancement, and
market penetration in lieu of garrisons and bases. 19 Competition does emerge as a larger
consequence of the labyrinth political and effectually the economic interactions that happen
along the complex web of power structures in the system. The logic of conflict has itself
undergone an extensive face change with adversarial, zero-sum, and paradoxical 20 ideas of
conflict assuming a backseat in a world scene dominated by complex interdependence and
the emergence of an era of neoliberal institutionalism.

The structures and institutions under the aegis of the neoliberal framework witnessed
inception with the formation of the united nations in 1945 and the financial institutions under
its aegis viz. the General Agreement On Tariff And Trade(GATT) and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) which were mainly conceptualized for the reconstruction of the post
war world and the beginning of regional integration with the European economic and steel
community concretised the idea of strengthening regional ties which fundamentally promoted
the idea of achieving regional hegemony among the major nations of Europe.

Successive enlargements of the European economic community produced todays european

union in 1992 with the signing of the treaty on European union called the Maastricht treaty. 21
18 Ibid,pp.35

19 Edward N. Luttwak, From Geopolitics to Geo-Economics: Logic of Conflict, Grammar of

CommerceThe National Interest (1990) in Gearoid O Tuathil, Simon Dalby And Paul Routledge
(eds),The Geopolitics Reader (second edition),Routledge Publishing House,New York.pp.125

20 Ibid,pp.125

21 Ronald Tiersky, Introduction in Ronald Tiersky, John Van Oudenaren(eds), European Foreign
Policies: Does Europe Still Matter?, Rowman &Littlefield Publishers Inc., United Kingdom.pp.3
The Collapse of the soviet union witnessed the integration of the newly independent soviet
bloc countries in the Pan-European treshhold.

However, the creation of a european union has invariably affected the ties between the two
great powers viz. Germany and France. With regard to the monetary union, the French have
perceived themselves as being under German command from the start. The Treaty of
Maastricht had modeled the statutes of the European central bank almost identically after the
German Bundesbank. In addition, Germany started an intense debate as to the meticulous
adherence to the deficit criteria.22 which was a major bone of contention for France. The ideas
of a European defense and security policy and common foreign and security policy have been
the pillars of difference for the two nations in the expedient functioning of the European
union. German Geostrategy, though was an aggressive expedition during the nazi regime has
changed its trajectory by assuming the role of a subdued albeit reluctant big power 23 in the
concert of Europe.

Hegemonic Stability Theory and German Geostrategy

Robert Gilpin, Stephen Krasner, and other scholars from the realist tradition have identified
the distribution of power among states as a central factor in explaining the openness and
stability of the international economy. This theory argued that the over- whelming dominance
of one country was necessary for the existence of an open and stable world economy. 24 The
basis of this theory can be traced back to the offensive realist paradigm, however, the theory
gets diluted with maximization of interests with respect to monetary aspects becoming the
crux of the international order than that of maximization of power, though power and security
are essentially perceived to be the precipitous of the control over the economy.

German economic power in Europe is uncontested. What is contested are its effects on
Germany's neighbors. Accompanying the obvious benefits that accrue to Europe from
22 Ulrike Guerot ,France And Germany The Evolution Of A European Partnership in Bertrand Fort,
Douglas Webber (eds), Regional Integration in East Asia and Europe: Convergence Or
Divergence?,Routledge Publications,New York.pp.45

23 Stefan Lehne,The Big Three In European Union Foreign Policy ,the Carnegie papers.Carnegie
Europe.

24 Helen V. Milner,International Political Economy: Beyond Hegemonic Stability, Foreign Policy,

No. 110, Special Edition: Frontiers of Knowledge (Spring, 1998),Washingtonpost.Newsweek
Interactive,LLC,pp.113
German economic might are also potential disadvantages, particularly that of dependence.
The benefits for germany outweigh any associated costs, thus rendering Germany a benign
hegemon.25However, the nationalist strategy of Germany can be well comprehended by the
relative understanding of the theorisation propounded in the hegemonic stability theory
wherein economics becomes the cynosure of all policies mainly expounded by theoreticians
like Kindleberger,Keohane And Ikenberry.

Edward Hallet Carr observed that "the science of economics presupposes a given political
order, and cannot be profitably studied in isolation from politics."' Throughout history, the
larger configurations of world politics and state interests have in large measure determined
the framework of the international economy.26 Aspiring hegemonic and neo-imperial powers
in the world system have realized the empiricism attached to the international political
economy and thus articulate their national and international economic and security interests
in terms of economy, thus adding the pillar of cost benefit analysis to a more co-operative
liberal world. In the interest of world efficiency and domestic economic welfare, the nation
state's control over economic affairs will continually give way to the multinational
corporation, to the Eurodollar market, and to other international institutions better suited to
the economic needs of mankind.27 International power and economy run relative to each other
and evince a condition for the nations to assert themselves in a system wherein distribution of
power becomes a rhetoric and shared assumption of roles among nations in multilateral
agreements the germination of the idea of hegemony with a view to concretise international
stability.

The basic contention of the hegemonic stability thesis is that the distribution of power among
states is the primary determinant of the character of the international economic system. A
hegemonic distribution of power, defined as one in which a single state has a predominance
of power, is most conducive to the establishment of a stable, open international economic

25 Andrei S. Markovits, Simon Reich and Frank Westermann, Germany: Hegemonic Power and
Economic Gain?, Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Winter, 1996),Taylor &
Francis Publications,pp.698

26 Robert Gilpin, Three Models of the Future, International Organization, Vol. 29, No. 1, World
Politics and International Economics(Winter, 1975),University Of Wisconsin Press,pp.37

27 Ibid,pp.39
system.28 Want for this stable order has been entrenched as running parallel to the idea of
cost-benefit for the concerned nation, consequently being embraced, albeit conditionally
sometimes in the case of the European concert. Germanys role in the european union in
general and the eurozone in particular has been perceived to be acceptable and advantageous
for the other member-nations. Rather the strength of the hegemon is underscored by its
attractive29 manifestation for the countries on whom it is exercised, underpinning the
benign influence that Germany exerts over the region relatively than the United States
exercise of hegemonic power that invariably questions the rhetoric of legitimacy involved in
such a conception. Multilateral institutions have been the locus of control for the world
economy, however the role of which have been highly criticized because of the hegemonic
role of certain countries exemplified by the united states control of the world bank and the
united nations, German control of European union which is more or less a monetary union,
the control of which is perceived to be the reflection of parochial national interests.

The contribution of Germany under the umbrella of the core elements of power to the
European union like territory, population and greater national character and also largely its
control of the exports and the conception of euro being the brainchild of Germany ,also
reflects the benefits that it enjoys as a result of this alliance both in relative and in absolute
terms .A cursory observation of the workings of the European Union exemplifies that
consistent with the more benign version of hegemonic stability theory offered by
Kindleberger, smaller states have again greatly benefited from their membership in the EU as
measured by increased export percentages to member states, secondly, among its few major
economic rivals, Germany proved to be the primary beneficiary from the free trade
arrangements as measured by increased exports30.

28 Michael C. Webb and Stephen D. Krasner, Hegemonic Stability Theory: An Empirical

Assessment, Review of International Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2, Special Issue on the Balance of
Power(Apr., 1989),pp.183

29 Andrei S. Markovits, Simon Reich and Frank Westermann, Germany: Hegemonic Power and
Economic Gain?, Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Winter, 1996),Taylor &
Francis Publications.pp.699

30 Andrei S. Markovits, Simon Reich and Frank Westermann, Germany: Hegemonic Power and
Economic Gain?, Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Winter, 1996),Taylor &
Francis Publications,pp.
Apart from the economic dividends that it incurs, political union of the region was the
primary agenda for Germany. It viewed political union as the fore-runner of the economic
and monetary union. Political union represents the enshrinement of germanys post-war
ideal of muted national power and the opportunity to exert international influence. 31Germany,
though hasnt adopted an explicit hegemonic international policy has been a vanguard for the
economic furtherance of a region that aims to be an effective counter balance in an
international system, where the scales are tipped towards the united states and thus
challenging its self-entrenched ascendancy.

To understand the position and role of Germany , comprehending Keohane's functional

definition of a hegemon as a country willing and able to pay the cost of maintaining the
system, even in the face of defection. In the case of US global hegemony, advocates of the
variants of hegemonic stability theory could approximately assess the propensity of
hegemons to pay the bills by examining regime defections. 32Germany, though has been at the
heart of two destructive wars has entrenched itself in the international system as an export
driven economy and the consequent economic prosperity has what made germany to assert
itself in a system wherein relative power has necessitated the comprehensive power
projection for ensuring its own independent survival.

Germany, has been conceived to have been a idealist nation which rose as a phoenix,engaged
in fledgling economic multilateralism and with time this unfettered belief in maximization of
national interests within this multilateral framework witnessed a ebb and this has been the
foundation for its national policy encircling its foreign policy and economic objectives
ensuring large scale national interest. It has also been more aware of the costs of European
integration as a consequence of the recession that has been the denouement of the ongoing
economic crisis.

Germany may still be, by a large measure, the most postmodern of the big European
countries and the one that would be most ready to surrender parts of its foreign policy
independence in the interest of an effective European common policy. Germany always

31 Aparajita endow, France, Germany and the European Union- Maastricht and after ,aakar books,
new delhi,pp.

32 Andrei S. Markovits, Simon Reich and Frank Westermann, Germany: Hegemonic Power and
Economic Gain?, Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Winter, 1996),Taylor &
Francis Publications,pp.711
belonged to the reform-minded group of member states.33Its relatively weak foreign and
security policy has been a hindrance in assertion of a hegemonic role which can also be
consequence of the myopic strategic vision with the security policy and France has had a
reluctant bargain with Germany over its assertion on economic issues in the region with its
mushrooming preponderance in the ongoing economic issues raising a craw in the throat of
France, though political designs form a part of Frances bargains, economics is what effects
the pulse of this multilateral framework consequently rendering a neo-imperial manifestation
of attaining a hegemonic position the nucleus of which can be found in economic
proportions. And more germane to this idea of ascendancy of germany in the concert of
Europe is the fact that it sets right the hegemonic stability theory and thus concretises its role
as stabilizer in the region.

Germany after World War II never developed the strategic culture and global perspective that
in the UK and France form part of the states identity. Germanys considerable international
influence today is to a certain extent not so much the result of national ambitions but rather a
side effect of its great success as an economic power and export champion. 34Its perennial
emphasis on stability has what guided its national and international policy over time.
However, the ongoing economic crisis in the superstructure of European union has brought
the rhetoric of hegemony in relation to Germany in the glaring view of the spectatorial world.

The Role of Germany as a Regional Hegemon in the Ongoing Economic Crisis Of The
European Union.

The world economy felt the ripples of a financial meltdown with major economic powers
reeling under severe debt pushing many a micro economies down the precipice and thus
holding the world hostage to an economic crisis that has proved pernicious to the
international order. Every nation-state in the international system has realized the precarious
condition of the economic system and the idea of economic ascendancy has taken root in the
foreign policy of a country or its outward looking policy.

The eurozone has at large felt the brunt of this crisis with the fetters of a common currency as
a noose for its demise though the eurozone has been stabilized largely by the initiatives of an

33 Stefan Lehne,The Big Three In European Union Foreign Policy ,the Carnegie papers.Carnegie
Europe

34 Ibid,pp.11
economically sound germany thus crystallizing its historical though ever germane nationalist
strategy of a German Geopolitik ,extending its auspices along the Europe line consequently
moulding a world situation and projecting germany as a regional hegemon albeit a reluctant
one.

Understanding the ornate structure of the Eurozones substructural edifice well explicates the
economic structuring and its reflection on the projection of power by countries. Though the
economic pillar of the unions edifice has been modeled along the lines of the empirical
success of German economic rise, the eurozone has failed to replicate an idea that would have
bred Autarky for the region in a generic sense. Renunciation of the deutschmark and
introduction of the European Community currency, the euro, was only approved by the
Germans, because the European Central Bank (ECB) as laid out in the Maastricht Treaty was
sold to them as a giant copy of the Bundesbank, to be located in Frankfurt, prioritizing its
mandate of limiting inflation.35 German role has been magnified and looking inward is a
defiance for them in the contemporary scenario and its hard stance in the region concretises
its primacy in the existence and functionality of the union in general and the eurozone and the
euro in particular.

For decades, Germany has been able to afford unique military and fiscal-political restraint.
But all that is changing: first, Germany started participating in international military missions,
and now with the European Stability Mechanism and the ECBs growing political role, the
swan song is being sung for the old Bundesbank philosophy. Of all possible times, Berlin has
chosen this moment of peak economic strength to abdicate its decades-long special
position.36This crisis has witnessed the peroration of the militaristic definition of power,
addressing the German role of a diadem in the crisis thus partially negating the significance
of other regional powers relevance vying for primacy in the region. The pacifistic idea of
german foreign policy saw dilution with the participation in missions in Cambodia and
Somalia. Though the neo-imperialistic policy of contemporary Germany is not in the least
aggressive, a clear departure from erstwhile Germany , its hegemonic aspirations in the face
of the current economic meltdown explicates a Geostrategy that ,though has the seeds of the
legacy to carry forward, entails a pacific denouement.

35 See, https://ip-journal.dgap.org/en/ip-journal/topics/end-germanys-sonderweg ,accessed on 12-10-2012

36 Ibid
The euro is the fragile crown of the European project of shared sovereignty.thats why its
survival is so important.The fragility of the monetary union, institutionally and politically,
has loomed larger against the backdrop of financial markets .European politics have often let
mistrust prevail over inspiration.The repatriation of politics and the resurgence of national
interests have already infiltrated the European economy.37The idea of a contagion and a
systemic collapse slipped the sagacious thought of leaders and the domino effect of the
financial crisis with its birth in the united states proved pernicious for the world over,in
particular the P(Portugal),I(Ireland),I(Italy),G(Greece),S(spain), nations that function under
the rubric of the euro and the eurozone.

The eurozone crisis can be perceived to be a spill-over from the economic crisis of the united
states wherein they were seen to be superstructures invincible in their domain of functioning.
The financial crisis effected a consensus on the collaborative and expedient response

37 Carlo Bastasin, Saving Europe, How National Politics Nearly Destroyed The
Euro, The Brookings Institution,Washington,pp.2