About the Book
France and Germany have played a pivotal role in the history and politics of European integration. Yet, paradoxically, a study that systematically investigates the interrelated reality of Franco-German bilateralism and multilateral European integration has been conspicuously lacking. Formulating an approach the authors call "embedded bilateralism", this book offers exactly that. It scrutinizes in empirical and historical detail the bilateral Franco-German order and France and Germany's joint role in shaping Europe over the past half century. The book addresses two key questions regarding France and Germany in Europe from the Elysée Treaty to the twenty-first century: Why have France and Germany continued to hang together in an especially tight relationship for over five decades amidst frequently dramatic domestic change, lasting differences, and fundamental international transformation? And why has the joint Franco-German impact on shaping Europe's polity and European policies, while fundamental, proved so uneven across political domains and time? In answer to the first question, Shaping Europe argues that the actions and practices of the Franco-German order-its regularized bilateral intergovernmentalism, symbolic acts and practices, and parapublic underpinnings-together have rendered this bilateral connection historically resilient and politically adaptable. Regarding the second question, the book holds that different combinations of a limited number of factors located at the bilateral, domestic, regional European, and international levels explain central aspects of variation. Together, these factors condition and modulate France and Germany's joint impact on Europe. In pursuing its research questions, theoretical work, historical reconstructions, and empirical analyses, Shaping Europe fruitfully combines the study of European integration, EU politics and policymaking, Franco-German affairs, and French and German politics with general theorizing and conceptual grounding in international relations and political science.
Table of Contents:
Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: France and Germany in Europe
1: Bilateral Regional Polity and Policy Shaping
2: Regularized Bilateral Intergovernmentalism
3: Carolingian Symbols and Meaning
4: Parapublic Underpinnings of a Bilateral Relationship
5: Polity Shaping I: Building Regional Institutions
6: Polity Shaping II: The Politics of Enlargement
7: Making, Shaping, and Limiting European Markets
8: Monetary Cooperation and Integration
9: Foreign and Security Policy: Occasional Leadership
10: Embedded Bilateralism in Europe
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Ulrich Krotz is Professor at the European University Institute (EUI), where he holds the Chair in International Relations in the Political Science Department and the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University, has taught at Oxford University and Brown University, and has held various research positions at Princeton University, the EUI, and Harvard University. He is author of Flying Tiger: International Relations Theory
and the Politics of Advanced Weapons (Oxford University Press, 2011) and History and Foreign Policy in France and Germany (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming). Recent journal publications have appeared
in World Politics, International Security, the European Journal of International Relations, European Security, Foreign Policy Analysis, and the Journal of Common Market Studies. Joachim Schild is Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Trier. Previously he was a research associate at the Franco-German Institute, Ludwigsburg, and senior research associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, SWP) in Berlin, as well as a
guest researcher at the Centre de Recherches Politiques (CEVIPOF) at Sciences Po, Paris. His books include Debating Europe: The European Parliament Elections, 2009 and Beyond (Nomos, 2011, edited with
Robert Harmsen). He has published journal articles, among others, in the Journal of Common Market Studies and the Journal of European Public Policy.
Review :
Shaping Europe is beyond doubt a field-impacting academic piece and a must-read for students of Franco-German relations as well as a broader readership interested in the patterns of European integration, past and present.
[A] stimulating study ... this significant work provokes reflection, and marks a valuable step forward in the study of the EU.
At the core of contemporary Europe lies the bilateral relationship between France and Germany. What accounts for the success of this joint leadership role, and is it likely to continue in the future? Krotz and Schild argue that the success of the Franco-German duo should be seen as the result of creative leadership [that] created a unique symbolic relationship. Franco-German reconciliation became a self-fulfilling prophecy, as publics, politicians, and officials began to expect and promote further cooperation over time.
Krotz and Schild make a powerful argument which should make their study of great interest to scholars of European integration and International Relations... [They] have produced an excellent book, which will become the new standard text for students of Franco-German relations.
Ulrich Krotz and Joachim Schilds study brings two major innovations. The first one is the ambition to cover in one book the whole period, including the most recent developments ... The second one is to open the black box of what the authors call embedded bilateralism' ... The mastery and fortunate combination of those two novelties brings a precise and comprehensive panorama of the past half century of Franco-German tandem.
Krotz and Schilds book should be highly welcomed by all EU scholars.
Krotz and Schild make a powerful argument within the book that institutions matter, which should make their study of great interest to scholars of European integration and International Relations... [They] have produced an excellent book, which will become the new standard text for students of Franco-German relations.
Krotz and Schild have done a great service in mapping the current and somewhat fraught Franco-German relationship onto its past ... the book is a careful and respectful piece of scholarship.
[A] stimulating study ... this significant work provokes reflection, and marks a valuable step forward in the study of the EU.
For the 50th anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, Ulrich Krotz and Joachim Schild have provided all students of European and international politics with a special gift- a theoretically highly original, empirically rich, and historically informed analysis of Europes most important relationship. This splendid book invites us to explore embedded bilateralism as a distinctive type of international relations. The rewards are fully commensurate with the political occasion this book marks.
Krotz and Schild provide a highly interesting and innovative study explaining the enduring bilateral relationship between France and Germany, and its impact on European integration. Rigorous in analysis and documentation, their book is particularly valuable because it highlights the multiple causes and effects of Franco-German embeddedness in Europe.
Many see the Euro-crisis revealing mounting tensions between Berlin and Paris. This remarkable book, covering a half century of Franco-German relations and European politics, reminds us that the obstacles faced by the two neighbors at the signing of the Elysée Treaty-and at various junctures since-while different, were no less politically momentous and historically significant than the challenges France and Germany encounter today.
