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Germany’s world: power and followership in a crisis-ridden Europe

Hellmann, Gunther, (2016), “Germany’s world: power and followership in a crisis-ridden Europe”, Global Affairs, Volume 2 Issue 1, 11 Μay

EUrope and Germany face unprecedented crises. Given its role as EUrope’s “central power” the article explores how Germany looks at its environment and how the world looks back. I offer five cuts of Germany’s world, that is, how its power, place and ambition might be described from different angles. First, I examine a “structural” interpretation of EUrope’s setting which shows a certain affinity with German visions of a rules-governed world. Next I reconstruct how Germany’s changing role is described from the outside and the inside. The stark contrast between images of overbearing “hegemony” and facilitating German “leadership” lay the ground for a third cut which examines how German leadership has fared in three recent EUropean crises. In a fourth cut I analyse Germany’s leadership challenges against the foil of US leadership globally. The difficulties highlighted in Germany’s world of “shaping powers” and tough love diplomacy, my fifth cut, leave it, and EUrope, in an unenviable position indeed.

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