Kristina Spohr. The Global Chancellor

Kristina Spohr’s The Global Chancellor: Helmut Schmidt and the Reshaping of the International Order, published in an English and a German version (the latter enlarged), is a major contribution both to the history of international relations in the 1970s and early 1980s and to a political biography of the German chancellor during this period. Based on extensive research in government and political parties’ archives in Germany, the UK, the U.S., and Norway, and in Helmut Schmidt’s private papers, it offers new insights into the establishment of the economic summits (G6, G7), on the quarrel about the production of the so-called neutron bomb, on the genesis of the “dual-track decision” on the modernization of long-range theater nuclear forces (LRTNFs) in Europe, and on Schmidt’s efforts as mediator in the escalating U.S.-Soviet conflict in 1980–1982. Further to the existing literature on these topics, the author provides us with information about the intellectual and personal backgrounds of Schmidt’s behavior, lively accounts of numerous meetings with foreign statesmen, and scores of meaningful details.

Biography · Economic history · Economics · Foreign policy · German · Government (linguistics) · International relations · Modernization theory · Order (exchange) · Political science · Politics · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy