German Security and European Policy - JTM581

• Title: German Security and European Policy
• Czech title: Německá bezpečnostní a evropská politika
• Guaranteed by: Department of German and Austrian Studies (23-KNRS)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2024
• Semester: summer
• E-Credits: 6
• Examination process: summer s.:
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: 15 / unknown (15)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: doc. Jakub Eberle, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): doc. Jakub Eberle, Ph.D.

Annotation

This course will focus on key issues in Germany's current security and European policies. It will combine the study of key academic concepts with discussion of current developments in German politics, including a high degree of participative learning (through seminar discussions and simulation exercise). Knowledge of German is welcome, yet not essential for participation in this course.

Last update: Eberle Jakub, doc., Ph.D. (03.01.2025)

Aim of the course

The aims of this course are

• to familiarise students with the key arguments concerning Germany's European and security policy
• to foster critical thinking via discussion and application of academic concepts to current affairs
• to develop presentation, discussion and persuasion skills via participatory exercises

Last update: Eberle Jakub, doc., Ph.D. (03.01.2025)

Course completion requirements

The grade will consist of 100 points divided between the following elements:

• 30 % for attendance and active participation in seminar discussions and other activities
• 15 % for presentation of a party manifesto (oral form and written handout)
• 15 % for a written discussion report (600 words)
• 20 % for a written mock newspaper article (800 words)
• 20 % for a negotiation exercise

There will be no test, no oral exam and no classical essay. All grading will be distributed based on the activities above.

Last update: Eberle Jakub, doc., Ph.D. (03.01.2025)

Literature

The literature will be distributed via Moodle (https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=17313).

Most resources are in English, with a few primary sources in German. If you do not speak German, you will still be able to take the course, even though this means that you might occasionally have to rely on automated translation or work closely with your classmates.

Last update: Eberle Jakub, doc., Ph.D. (31.01.2025)

Teaching methods

This is a seminar course based on the combination of individual reading, course discussion (with an initial input of the teacher), participative exercises (presenting a party manifesto, negotiating a coalition treaty), and short writing assignments (a report on discussion, a mock newspaper article). Regular active participation and preparation is paramount.

Last update: Eberle Jakub, doc., Ph.D. (03.01.2025)

Requirements to the exam

There will be no test and no oral exam. 

Last update: Eberle Jakub, doc., Ph.D. (03.01.2025)

Syllabus

SESSIONS AND TOPICS (incl. reading list):

1. Introduction, course organisation, task assignment

Ash, Timothy Garton (2024). Big Germany, What Now? The New York Review of Books (23 May), pp. 22-25.

Eberle, Jakub and Alister Miskimmon (2021). Conclusion: German Foreign Policy in the (post-)Corona World, German Politics, 30:1, 140-148,

2. German election 2025: Results and their implications for foreign, security and European policy

Individual preparation based on election coverage.

3. Germany and geopolitics: A complicated relationship

Klinke, Ian (2011). Geopolitics in Germany – the Return of the Living Dead?, Geopolitics, 16:3, 707-726,
    
Fix, Liana (2022). Between Guilt and Responsibility: The Legacy of Spheres in Germany. The Washington Quarterly, 45(2), 75–91.

Franke, Ulrike (2021). ‘A Millennial Considers the New German Problem After 30 Years of Peace’. War on the Rocks. https://warontherocks.com/2021/05/a-millennial-considers-the-new-german-problem-after-30-years-of-peace/.

4. Germany and military force: Reluctant warriors?

Sakaki, Alexandra, Hanns W. Maull, Kerstin Lukner, Ellis S. Krauss, and Thomas U. Berger (2019). Reluctant Warriors: Germany, Japan, and Their U.S. Alliance Dilemma. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, pp. 1-17.

Stengel, Frank A. (2020). The Politics of Military Force: Antimilitarism, Ideational Change and Post-War German Security Discourse. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp. 1-17.

Johais, Eva (2024). The WARFUN taboo. War & Society, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/07292473.2024.240

‘Manifesto for peace’ (2023). https://www.aliceschwarzer.de/artikel/manifesto-peace-340073.

5. Germany and the Zeitenwende

Bunde, Tobias (2025). Zeitenwende as a foreign policy identity crisis: Germany and the travails of adaptation after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations,  https://doi.org/10.1177/13691481241311568
    
Ulatowski, Rafal (2024). The Illusion of Germany’s Zeitenwende. The Washington Quarterly, 47(3), 59–76.

Scholz, Olaf (2022) Policy statement by Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and Member of the German Bundestag, 27 February 2022 in Berlin (The Zeitenwende Speech). https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/news/policy-statement-by-olaf-scholz-chancellor-of-the-federal-republic-of-germany-and-member-of-the-german-bundestag-27-february-2022-in-berlin-2008378

 

6. Germany in the European Union: Leader, or laggard?

Schoeller,  Magnus G. (2023). Leadership aspirations versus reality: Germany's self-concept in Europe, International Affairs, 99(4), pp. 1615–1634,

Becker, Peter (2022). Germany as the European Union’s status quo power? Continuity and change in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, Journal of European Public Policy,  30(8), 1473–1493.

Hoff, Henning (2024). The Underwhelming Scholz Government Meets an Untimely End. Internationale Politik Quarterly, https://ip-quarterly.com/en/underwhelming-scholz-government-meets-untimely-end

 

7. Internal contraints of German decision-making: Semi-sovereignty, or self-blockage?

Bulmer, Simon and William E. Paterson (2019) Germany and the European Union: Europe's Reluctant Hegemon? London: Bloomsbury, pp. 78-110.

Gaskarth, Jamie and Kai Oppermann (2021). Clashing Traditions: German Foreign Policy in a New Era, International Studies Perspectives, 22(1), pp. 84–105.

Weber, Matthias (2020). The German court ruling against ECB asset purchases doesn’t make economic sense. LSE Blog. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2020/05/12/the-german-court-ruling-against-ecb-asset-purchases-doesnt-make-economic-sense/

8. Western allies: Germany's relations with the US and France

Langenbacher, Eric and Wittlinger, Ruth (2018). The End of Memory? German-American Relations under Donald Trump. German Politics, 27(2), 174–192.

Schramm, L., & Krotz, U. (2023). Leadership in European crisis politics: France, Germany, and the difficult quest for regional stabilization and integration. Journal of European Public Policy, 31(5), 1153–1178.

Kampfner, John (2025). Germany's Trump Problem. POLITICO, https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-donald-trump-election-foreign-policy/

9. Eastern challenges: Germany, Russia and Central and Eastern Europe

Fix, Liana (2021). Germany’s Role in European Russia Policy: A New German Power? Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp. 157-175.

Lough, John (2021). Germany's Russia problem: The struggle for balance in Europe. Manchester: MUP, Introduction

Handl, V., Nigrin, T., & Mejstřík, M. (2023). Turnabout or continuity? The German Zeitenwende and the reaction of the V4 countries to it. Journal of European Integration, 45(3), 503–519.

10. Group presentations I: Foreign, security and European policy in party manifestos

Individual preparation based on party manifestos.

 

11. Group presentations II: Foreign, security and European policy in party manifestos

Individual preparation based on party manifestos.

 

12. Group exercise: Coalition treaty negotiations

Individual preparation based on party manifestos.

 

13. Wrap-up, coalition treaty presentations

No reading.

Detailed syllabus will be uploaded to Moodle and circulated in the first week.

Individual preparation based on election coverage.

Moodle page:https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=17313

Last update: Eberle Jakub, doc., Ph.D. (31.01.2025)