The construction of German Middle East foreign policy : an explanation of Germany’s pro-Israel bias -

Abstract

This thesis explores the manifestation of pro-Israel bias in German foreign policy (FP) as well as contradictions between Germany’s actual Middle East (ME) FP and German FP values. The thesis applies social constructivist and historical institutionalist approaches. The latter allows the retracing of the historical development of Germany’s FP since World War and even before. In doing so German FP values and principles can be identified as well as critical junctures, which significantly influence the formation of German values and the resulting German identity. In combination with social constructivism the state-society relations and their influence on German FP-making are highlighted. The discourse analysis focuses on parliamentary debates, as the German parliament has the most important information function in the FP-making process. The cases studies are based on two debates each concerned with the Second Intifada in 2000 and 2002, as well as with the Lebanon War and its aftermath in September 2006. In doing so Germany’s uniform FP approaches to weak states in form of state-building the global war on terror can be shown. The study identified constitutionalism, institutionalism, anti-militarism, multilateralism and universalism as important principles of general German foreign policy. German FP values are based on the promotion of liberal democracy and free-market economy. However, German FP is also influenced by pragmatic, economics-driven aims. The discourse analysis illuminates the pro-Israel bias in the parliamentary debates. They manifest themselves in the FP-making process through different forms of bias justification among the political elite, based on: a lack of knowledge about the ME region, the denial of existing knowledge about the region and the Arab-Israeli conflict, an uncritical perception of German-Western liberalism as universal and “good” liberalism as well as self-censorship due to a fear of delegitimization. The rationales behind the pro-Israel bias justificat