An Intersectional Approach to Angela Merkel's Foreign Policy

Bibliographic Data

ID7292661
AuthorsJennifer A Yoder (corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume20
Issue3
Pages360-375
Publication date2011-09-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGerman Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0964-4008 • E-ISSN: 1743-8993
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09644008.2011.606571
OpenAlexW1978409995
LanguageEN
Citations received5

Angela Merkel is unique among post-war German chancellors in that she is a woman, she is from the former German Democratic Republic, and she is the first with a background in the natural sciences. This article explores how the intersection of these unique social roles have shaped Merkel's foreign policy. It begins with an exploration of the literature on women and foreign policy and considers its relevance for understanding Merkel's management style, ideology/worldview, and public image. Then the article looks specifically at Merkel's foreign policies toward Russia and the European Union, focusing on the substance of her foreign policy as well as her interactions with other leaders. The extent to which the chancellor has helped to bring more women into the foreign policy realm is also briefly discussed. Notes Ulrike Guerot, ‘Background Paper: Merkel's Foreign Policy’ (Aspen Institute, 24–25 Feb. 2006), p.5. For research on mass attitudes on foreign policy, see David Fite, Marc Genest and Clyde Wilcox, ‘Gender Differences in Foreign Policy Attitudes: A Longitudinal Analysis’, American Politics Quarterly18/4 (Oct. 1990), pp.492–513. Nancy E. McGlen and Meredith Reid Sarkees, Women in Foreign Policy: The Insiders (London: Routledge, 1993); and Karen M. Morin, ‘The Gender of Geography’, Postmodern Culture 5/2 (Jan. 1995), Project MUSE, (web), 23 Mar. 2011, http://muse.jhu.edu (accessed 12 August 2011). Michael A. Genovese (ed.), Women as National Leaders (London: Sage, 1993); Gunhild Hoogensen and Bruce O. Solheim, Women in Power: World Leaders Since 1960 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006); Anne Stevens, Women, Power and Politics (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2007). See Tom Lansford, ‘A Female Leader for the Free World: The First Woman President and U.S. Foreign Policy’, in Robert P. Watson and Ann Gordon (eds), Anticipating Madam President (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003), pp.177–88; Miroslav Nincic and Donna J. Nincic, ‘Women, Gender, and War’, Journal of Peace Research 39/5 (2002), pp.547–68; Francis Fukuyama, ‘Women and the Evolution of World Politics’, Foreign Affairs 77/5 (Sept./Oct. 1998), pp.24–41; Patricia Lee Sykes, ‘Women as National Leaders: Patterns and Prospects’, in Michael A. Genovese (ed.) Women as National Leaders (London: Sage, 1993) pp.219–29. V. Spike Peterson and Anne Sission Runyan, Global Gender Power, 2nd edition (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999). John Davis, ‘Confronting the Myths: The First Woman President and National Security’, in Robert P. Watson and Ann Gordon (eds), Anticipating Madam President (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2003), pp.189–200. Rhondi Jeffreys-Jones, Changing Differences: Women and the Shaping of American Foreign Policy (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers, 1995), p.2. Hoogensen and Solheim, Women in Power. See also Barbara Mandell and Shilpa Pherwani, ‘Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Transformational Leadership Style: A Gender Comparison’, Journal of Business and Psychology 17/3 (Spring 2003), pp.387–404; and Alice H. Eagly, Mary C. Johannesen-Schmidt and Marloes L. van Engen, ‘Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles: A Meta-analysis Comparing Women and Men’, Psychological Bulletin 129/4 (2003), pp.569–91. Stevens, Women, Power and Politics, p.168. Nira Yuval-Davis, ‘Intersectionality and Feminist Politics’, European Journal of Women's Studies 13/3 (2006), pp.193–209. See Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Berkeley, CA and London, University of California Press, 2000); and V. Spike Peterson and Anne Sisson Runyan, Global Gender Power, 2nd edition (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1999). See the work of Alice H. Eagly and Steven J. Karau, ‘Role Congruity Theory of Prejudice Toward Female Leaders’, Psychological Review 109/3 (July 2002), pp.573–98, on prejudice in public perceptions of female leaders. See also Karrin Vasby Anderson and Kristina K. Horn Sheeler, Governing Codes: Gender, Metaphor, and Political Identity (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005); Robert P. Watson and Ann Gordon (eds), Anticipating Madam President (Boulder, CO.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003); and Lori Cox Han and Caroline Heldman, Rethinking Madame President: Are We Ready for a Woman in the White House? (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2007). Kevin Lasher, ‘The Impact of Gender on Foreign Policy-Making: Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice’, Paper prepared for the American Political Science Association Meeting, 1–4 Sept. 2005, p.45. Gerd Langguth, Angela Merkel (Muenchen: Deutscher Taschenbuch, 2005), p.323. Ibid. Christian Hacke, ‘Germany's Foreign Policy under Angela Merkel’, 8 Aug. 2008), p.1, available from http://www.aicgs.org. Bernhard Mueller-Haerlin, ‘Angela Merkel's Foreign Policy’, Contemporary Review 289 (Spring 2007), pp.1–10. William Drozdiak, ‘She Has Shown She Is Not Afraid’, Newsweek, 20 Oct. 2007, available at http://www.newsweek.com/id/57433 (accessed 13 August 2008). Mueller-Haerlin ‘Angela Merkel's Foreign Policy’, p.3. Hacke, ‘Germany's Foreign Policy under Angela Merkel’. Spiegel Online, ‘Merkel's Pact with America: Germany Rediscovers the US as a Partner’, 30 April 2007, available at http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,480221,00.html (accessed 13 August 2008). BBC News, ‘A New German Voice But What Will It Say?’, 22 Nov. 2005, available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/hi/world/Europe/4459992.stm (accessed 30 May 2008). Quoted in The International Herald Tribune, 28 Nov. 2007. The title of their March 2004 edition of German Foreign Policy in Dialogue, edited by Marco Overhaus, Hanns W. Maull and Sebastian Harnisch was The German–Russia Relations: Trading Democracy for Security and Stability?, which, in many minds, summed up the tradeoff in Germany's relations with Russia under the Schroeder government. David McHugh, 7 Jan. 2006. Guerot, ‘Background Paper: Merkel's Foreign Policy’, p.2. Ibid. The fact that Merkel's foreign minister was an important player in the outgoing Schroeder government's foreign policy suggests that he will work to promote continuity with past policies, contracting the room for manoeuvre even further for the Grand Coalition government. Guerot, ‘Background Paper: Merkel's Foreign Policy’. Paul Wells ‘Nobody's “Girl”’, Maclean's 120/47 (3 Dec. 2007), pp.34–7. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Marta Dassu and Ulrike Guerot, ‘The Touch, and Clout, of Merkel and Rice’ (The German Marshall Fund, 2008), available from http://www.gmfus.org/publications/article.cfm (accessed 30 May 2008). Lasher, ‘The Impact of Gender on Foreign Policy-Making’. Clearly George Bush was pleased with the change of leadership style and attitude toward the United States. He seemed to genuinely like Chancellor Merkel and feel comfortable – perhaps too much so – in her presence. That Merkel represented a non-threatening, sympathetic colleague was evidenced by his uninvited, and infinitely inappropriate, neck-rub of the chancellor at the Group of Eight Summit in St. Petersburg in 2006. While Merkel was clearly unpleasantly surprised by Bush's action, not receiving it as a fun-loving gesture between close friends, she made light of it (at least publicly), not admonishing Bush. Merkel remains friendly with Bush and has visited his ranch in Crawford, Texas. He even allowed her to speak from his presidential podium, something highly unusual and reserved for close allies/friends only. Hacke, ‘Germany's Foreign Policy under Angela Merkel’. This refers to the title of Paul Wells' article on Merkel in Maclean's, 3 Dec. 2007. Holli A. Semetk and Hajo G. Boogaarden, ‘Reporting Germany's 2005 Bundestag Election Campaign: Was Gender an Issue?’, Press/Politics 12/4 (2007), pp.154–171; Myra Marx Ferree, ‘What Does it Mean to Run as a Woman?’, German Politics and Society 24/1 (Spring 2006), pp.93–107; and Sylka Scholz (ed.) ‘Kann die das?’ Angela Merkels Kampf um die Macht. Geschlechterbilder und Geschlechterpolitiken im Bundestagswahlkampf 2005 (Berlin: Karl Dietz, 2007). Marco Overhaus, Hanns W. Maull and Sebastian Harnisch (eds), The Foreign Policy of Germany's Grand Coalition, Deutsche-Aussenpolitik Foreign Policy in Dialogue series, 7/18 (Trier: 18 April 2006). Iris Kempe, ‘From a European Neighborhood Policy to a New Ostpolitik – The Potential Impact of German Policy’, Center for Applied Policy, Munich, no. 3 (May 2006), p.13. SpiegelOnline, 30 April 2007, available at http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,480221,00.html (accessed 13 August 2008). See Ulrich Speck, ‘The Merkel Government: Germany Still in Search of a Foreign Policy’, Working Paper 32 (2007), available from http://www.aicgs.org/documents/speck0207.pdf (accessed 13 August 2008). Alexander Rahr, ‘Germany and Russia: A Special Relationship’, The Washington Quarterly (Spring 2007), p.140. Angela Stent, ‘Berlin's Russia Challenge’, National Interest Online 46/88 (March 2007), available at http://www.robertamsterdam.com/Stent%20-%20Berlin%27s%20Russia%20Challenge.pdf (accessed 13 Aug. 2008). Rahr, ‘Germany and Russia: A Special Relationship’, p.141. Ibid., p.143. Wall Street Journal, 21 Aug. 2008. ‘Merkel's Most Serious Foreign Policy Crisis’, Spiegel-Online, 18 Aug. 2008, available at http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,druck-572726,00 (accessed 21 August 2008). ‘Merkel, Medvedev slam murder in Caucasus’, Euronews, 14 Aug. 2009, available at http://www.euronews.net/2009/08/14/Merkel-Medvedev (accessed 21 August 2008). SpiegelOnline, 25 July 2005, available at http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,366756,00.html (accessed 13 August 2008). Dan Drezner, ‘Putin Uses Dog to Intimidate Merkel’, Foreign Policy Passport (FP blog posted 14 June 2007), available from http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/5137 (accessed 13 August 2008). ‘A Loveless Berlin–Moscow Romance’, SpiegelOnline, 10 Oct. 2006, available at http://www.spiegel.de/international (accessed 30 May 2008). See Ton Nijhuis, ‘The European Policy of the Grand Coalition’, in Overhaus et al. (eds), The Foreign Policy of Germany's Grand Coalition, pp.25–32. Sebastian Kurpas and Henning Riecke, ‘Is Europe Back on Track? Impetus from the German EU Presidency’, Center for European Policy Studies Working Document No.273 (July 2007). See Kempe, ‘From a European Neighborhood Policy to a New Ostpolitik’. See also Bernard Hoekman, ‘Regionalism and Development: The European Neighborhood Policy and Integration a la Carte’, The Journal of International Trade and Diplomacy 1/1 (Spring 2007), pp.1–55; and Susanne Milcher, Ben Slay and Mark Collins, ‘The Economic Rationale of the “European Neighborhood Policy”’ United Nations Development Program, 2006, available at http://europeandcis.undp.org/home/show/550CDBF2-F203-1EE9-B548B7EC56496197 (accessed 18 August 2008). Kurpas and Reicke, ‘Is Europe Back on Track?’, p.18. Ibid., p.7. For more, see the German Federal Government's website on the summit at http://www.g-8.de/nn_92160/Content/EN/Artikel/__g8-summit/2007-06-08-heiligendamm-prozess__en.html (accessed 13 August 2008). The Heiligendamm Process intends to promote dialogue in the following four areas: Promoting and protecting innovation; Strengthening the freedom of investment by means of an open investment climate, including strengthening the principles of corporate social responsibility; Determining joint responsibilities for development, focusing specifically on Africa; Joint access to know-how to improve energy efficiency and technology co-operation, with the aim of contributing to reducing CO2 emissions. Jabeen Bhatti, ‘German G8 Presidency: Changes in Style and Substance’, Deutsche Welle online, 19 July 2006, available at http://www.dw-world.de/popups/popup_print/0,2103556,00 (accessed 30 May 2008). New York Times, 31 March 2009. Marx Ferree, ‘Angela Merkel: What Does It Mean to Run as a Woman?’, pp.103–4. These include Annette Schavan (CDU), Federal Minister of Education and Research, Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (SPD), Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development, Ula Schmidt (SPD) Minister of Health, and Brigitte Zypries (SPD), Minister of Justice. Pieper is one of two Ministers of State in the Foreign Ministry, the number two positions in the ministry. Pieper was born in 1959 in Halle and attended the University of Leipzig where she studied linguistics. She worked for a time as a translator of Russian and Polish. Ulrich Speck, ‘Back on Track? Germany and the Georgian and Ukrainian NATO Bids’, RFE/RF (2008), available at http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1079733.html (accessed 13 August 2008

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