New Germany in a New Europe -- The Global Dimension.

摘要

Since German reunification on October 3, 1990, one fact has emerged: Germany is Europe's local superpower. Despite the economic and social problems brought on the meshing of the two very different societies of the east and west, Germany has not faltered. The demise of the Soviet Union and the chaos encompassing the Commonwealth of Independence States has left a political vacuum on the European continent. Germany, under the leadership of Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, has shown itself both capable and determined to step in and assume a position of leadership. Germany displayed its new political confidence most clearly in the decision to recognize Croatia and Slovenia in January 1992, against the objections of the United States and a number of fellow European Community (EC) members. The Germans, however, refused to be dissuaded from what they saw as the only way to end the bloodshed in what was formally Yugoslavia. The U.S. and the other EC nations reluctantly followed suit and recognized both Croatia and Slovenia.