This book examines external perceptions of the Franco-German relationship, both from a historical perspective and as a driving force for regional integration. By providing various country and regional studies, it analyses the various types of perception and self-perception in several regions around the globe. Here, Franco-German cooperation serves as a mirror in which third-party countries view their own situation, today and in the future. The contributions address the questions of if and how the Franco-German reconciliation and cooperation is perceived as a role model for other regions, especially for the reconciliation of other inter-state and international conflicts. A concluding chapter highlights the divergences and convergences between the respective conflicts, and proposes recommendations for actors involved in diplomacy and international relations. The book is intended to provide scientific support for the implementation of the Franco-German Aachen Treaty of January 2019. It will appeal to scholars in political science and cultural studies, and to anyone interested in learning more about the Franco-German relationship and on external perspectives on it.

Suitable for use as a core text in courses of comparative European politics or in departments of Politics. Can also be used for courses that explore the Political Dynamics of the European Union.Franco-German relations lie at the heart of European integration and are central to an understanding of major issues like monetary union and foreign policy. Based on extensive research, this concise text contains a multi-level analysis of this key topic. Describing historical background and examining contemporary debates, it considers the domestic settings of French and German politics; the internal operation of the Franco-German relationship itself; and the impact of the relationship in the wider European context. Cole provides students with a much-needed accessible introduction, and framework for theoretical analysis.

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - Region: Western Europe, grade: sehr gut, Eötvös Loránd University, course: EU-Law, language: English, abstract: Since the post-war period, and since the Elysée Treaty was signed in 1963, the Franco-German relationship has been and continues to be the driving force in Europe. The co-operation between the governments is extraordinarily close and institutionalized due to the Elysée Treaty and its amendment of 1988. To name just a few examples: • half- yearly government consultations (summits), which, since 1999, have focused on current topics of society in both countries and therefore go beyond simple co-operation between governments, • the German-French Security and Defense Council, • the Councils for Economic, Financial and Environmental Affairs and • the coordinators for German-French co-operation, which devote most of their attention today to the field of civil society In addition, since the beginning of 2001, heads of state and government and the foreign ministers of both countries have been holding informal meetings every 6-8 weeks for open and intense discussion on current topics of European and international interest (Blaesheim talks). Both countries have played a pioneering role in defense policy by founding the Eurocorps and both are actively participating in the creation of a European Security and Defense Policy. And Germany and France are each other's most important partners in international co-operation on armaments. France is Germany's closest and most important partner in Europe. With no other country does it coordinate all its policies more extensively or regularly. With the joint plenary session of the German Bundestag and the National Assembly on the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Elysée Treaty, the parliaments reaffirmed and stepped up their close cooperation, including: [...

This book surveys Franco-German relations from the French Revolution to the 1990s, collecting the most current research from area specialists.

This book examines the Franco-German relationship in the EU in relation to different policy sectors. It assesses the nature and importance of the relationship for the policy process.

This book analyses and compares instances of the diffusion of political norms and ideas in the history of Franco-German relations. While this relationship is often described as a history evolving from enmity over reconciliation to friendship, the book uses the concept of diffusion as a complementary analytical perspective to emphasize how political norms and ideas originating in one society have influenced the other, especially in periods of intergovernmental conflict. Established in International Relations to explain transnational normative change in contemporary contexts, the framework of diffusion is heuristically useful to explore how various types of actors have contributed, using analytically different mechanisms, to normative change across the Rhine. The book presents eight case studies featuring various contents and mechanisms of ideational diffusion taken from three contexts of Franco-German history, including the French Revolution, the Franco-Prussian War, and Franco-German rapprochement after 1945. Arguing that phenomena that are often seen as genuinely ‘national’ evolutions, such as German nationalism or the French system of primary education, cannot be understood without taking into account the reception and emulation of norms from across the Rhine, the book should help students and scholars to overcome the limits of methodological nationalism when studying bilateral relationships, in the Franco-German context and elsewhere.

'The book provides an excellent understanding of the unity and dissonance within the Franco-German relationship.' - Aslib Book Guide In the latter part of a turbulent century for Europe, France and Germany have been at the forefront of the developments that have shaped both Western and Eastern Europe. Having initiated and controlled economic and monetary union, the greater goal is now that of further European integration, and the Franco-German dynamic is likely to be crucial again in the success or failure of achieving this. The Franco-German Axis in European Integration examines the effectiveness and durability of the Franco-German relationship in European integration, tracing this important partnership through many political and economic disparities. This study goes on to assess the role of these two states in the challenges now facing the Union; from EMU, to the process of stabilising its eastern borders, and from enlargement of the Union, to the struggle to agree on a common foreign security policy.