Politics of Western Europe Germany And The European Union As it began, our century drew to a close, with Germany once again the economic powerhouse and political hub of Europe. What is remarkable is how quickly this happened, how unbidden and unanticipated: the toppling of the Berlin Wall in November 1989; the reunification a year later; the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in late December 1991; a resurgent impetus to West European integration in 1992; and NATO enlargement, which was consecrated in April 1999. Unquestionably, this chain of events has profoundly affected Germanys situation over the past decades. For the first time since the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1949 and the painstaking process of creating democratic institutions, the German elite must look beyond the continuing task of state building and deal with a set of formidable new problems. Germany is the only country in the world now having to deal with parallel modernization processes: the modernization of the former (West German) Federal Republic of Germany and, simultaneously, the transformation in the former German Democratic Republic from a Communist state-controlled economy to a liberal and social-market economy. Pressures induced by economic and political changes are currently being felt in many European nations, yet a reunited Germany faces a more specific and poignant challenge: In its role as a central power at the heart of Europe, Germany bears a tremendous political responsibility to itself and the whole continent, both for historical reasons and because of its geopolitical location. With that said, it is only through evaluation of the positives and negatives for both Germany and Europe as a whole that we can assess whether or not Germany should, in fact, adapt a policy towards European integration by means of the European Union. And, after examining the likely results of this globalization on the t...
