Author(s)

Yuxue Wang ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Beijing International Studies University, Beijing, 100010, China

Corresponding Author

ABSTRACT

After the Cold War, Germany completed its reunification and became a country with complete sovereignty. Given the changing European security environment and its national security concept, Germany has reformulated its national security strategy to protect its security and its allies, promote European stability, and enhance its political influence in Europe. In this context, Germany regards NATO's eastward expansion as a key path to achieve its strategic goals. This paper uses the theory of Constructivist Realism to explore the change of Germany's role from active promoter to rational balance in the process of NATO eastward expansion. In the first round of the eastward expansion, Germany used its relations power to discipline Russia and promoted its acceptance of the eastward expansion through conflict cooperation and unequal transactions. However, in the subsequent expansion process to the east, Germany turned to rational balance and paid more attention to the balance of relations with Russia and European defense integration.

KEYWORDS

CITE THIS PAPER

Yuxue Wang, The Changing Role of Germany in the Process of NATO's Eastward Expansion after the Cold War. Journal of Political Science Research (2024) Vol. 5: 31-38. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/DOI: 10.23977/polsr.2024.050203.

REFERENCES

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