Analysis Of The Relationship Between Germany And France After World War Ii

As two traditional powers of Europe, and because of special geo-political factors, Germany and France had played as competitors in the international political arena in the past more than two centuries. In the past time, there were too many conflicts and fights between the two powers, either for the Europe`s leadership or for the world's resources. But in the end of World War II, this has changed a lot, Germany and France achieved reconciliation and maintained a long-term stability of the co-operation, which was in sharp contrast with the previous experience of Germany and France. How this changed and what were reasons, all these questions more research and study.The changes of relations between Germany and France in past half century made people know that national identity and interests play a much more important role in country's foreign policy making and implementing. According to Alexander Wendt`s theory of constructivism, that the national identity was built both by external expections and internal recogniaztons. Today, for the modern communication technology, the relations among countries have become more closely. And the country has become more sensitive for the external expectations as well as the interests. Consequently, the national identity recognizing, as well as foreign policy making have turned to be very difficult for countries. The study on the relations between Germany and France could provide basic experiences for these difficulties. After World War II, the international political structure has changed, the national identity and interests of Germany and France had been re-constructed, which required Germany and France to take new foreign policies. In this process, according to Alexander Wendt`s theory of constructivism, the international system and actors constructed each other, and new external expectations and internal identity recognizations were built. Due to special geographical location in European Center, the politicians both from Germany and France could recognize exactly external expectations through the geo-political actions, and which could provide formation and power for their own foreign policy making and implementing.In this paper, the development of diplomatic relations between Germany and France in the past since World War II was the main line, and the Alexander Wendt`s theory of constructivism served as a guide for analysis. According to the main features in the development of the diplomatic relations between Germany and France, I take the relations history between Germany and France since World War II into three phases, for example, the 1950s to the 1960s of reconciliation, the 1960s to the late 1980s of steady cooperation, as well as the 1990s till now of the re-adjustment phase. Through the study of the development of the relations between Germany and France as well as effective factors in diplomatic polices of Germany and France, I commit the conclusion that the reconciliation and steady cooperation between Germany and France since 1950s were actually created by the re-adjustment of national identity of Germany and France, and which was constructed by the interactions between international political system and its country-actor.