German identity and European integration

Although the structural constraints facing Germany shifted dramatically wit h the end of the Cold War and reunification, the direction of its European policy did not. The more powerful Federal Republic continued to press for d eeper economic and political integration, eschewing a more independent or a ssertive foreign policy course. Neorealism, neoliberalism and liberalism ca nnot adequately explain this continuity in the face of structural change. T his article sets out a constructivist account centered around the effects o f German state identity. It develops a two-step analytical framework design ed to pinpoint the content of state identity and establish its effects on s tate action, and then applies it to the German case. In the wake of reunifi cation, German leaders across the political spectrum identified the Federal Republic as part of an emergent supranational community. This European ide ntity, with roots in the postwar decades, drove Germany's unflagging suppor t for deeper integration across the 1989-90 divide.