CIAO DATE: 11/03

The State of International Relations Research and Perspectives in Germany

Gunther Hellmann, editor
August 2003

The Future of International Relations in Germany by Klaus Dieter Wolf and Gunther Hellmann

Abstract

In this concluding chapter the authors apply three perspectives in order to identify key strengths as well as shortcomings in German International Relations, and to sketch some avenues for future research. A synopsis of the different contributions culminates in a profile of German IR which is compared in a second step with alternative profiles resulting from the new Handbook of International Relations and a recently published state of the art volume of the American Political Science Association. Finally, the response to the original call for papers is revisited in order to appraise the present state and the prospects of German IR. The authors suggest that the comparative advantage of German IR should be utilized for transferring questions of legitimacy and justice from the state level to the level of global governance and for approaching the classical research on security issues from a broader perspective which leaves state-centrism behind. (Self-)critical remarks are addressed to the lack of historiographical interest and towards a possible tendency to neglect classical research topics in favour of more fashionable ones.