Revising Ostpolitik
Implications of the Zeitenwende for European and Transatlantic Relations
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Abstract
The Russian invasion of Ukraine marks a turning point in European security policy. Defense concepts have been altered within Europe as well as in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and Russia is no longer seen as a European partner, but a threat to security and stability in Europe. The article argues that the term Zeitenwende coined by the German chancellor is not a rhetorical figure; rather, it is reshaping Germany's approach to the East and upended German and European Ostpolitik. In fact, the new foreign policy direction sheds illusions of both the classic Ostpolitik of the Cold War and the new Ostpolitik of post-unification Germany by introducing a fundamentally different approach to Eastern and Central Eastern Europe and within NATO. The article explores the critical juncture created by the Zeitenwende of 2022 and its implications for European security policy.
Contributor Notes
Christiane Lemke is Emerita Professor of political science and international relations and former director of the Jean Monnet European Center of Excellence at Leibniz University Hannover/Germany. She is also an adjunct professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on German politics, European affairs, and transatlantic relations. She has published widely on regime transition, migration, populism, climate change policy and women in leadership. Her most recent publications include Germany Today. Politics and Policies in a Changing World (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018); “Right-Wing Populism and International Issues: A Case Study of the AfD” (German Politics and Society, 2020), The Battle for the White House: The US-Presidential Elections 2020 (Springer VS, 2022); “German Party Politics in Times of Change and Uncertainty: Special Issue” (German Politics and Society; Editor with Dominic Nyhuis, 2023). Email: lemke@ipw.uni-hannover.de