This book contributes to the debate about a new German power in Europe with an analysis of Germany’s role in European Russia policy. It provides an up-to-date account of Germany’s “Ostpolitik” and how Germany has influenced EU-Russia relations since the Eastern enlargement in 2004 - partly along, partly against the interests and preferences of new member states. The volume combines a rich empirical analysis of Russia policy with a theory-based perspective on Germany’s power and influence in the EU. The findings demonstrate that despite Germany’s central role, exercising power within the EU is dependent on legitimacy and acceptance by other member states.

"Germany's Role in European Russia Policy-A New German Power? provides an innovative framework for analysing how EU-Russia relations might develop well into the twenty-first century." -- Professor Angela Stent, Director, Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, Georgetown University "With her sophisticated, well-researched and astute assessment of Germany's influence on European policies towards Russia, Liana Fix effectively debunks many of the myths about Germany's alleged "hegemony" in Europe. Essential reading for anyone interested in Germany in Europe." -- Professor Hanns W. Maull, Senior Distinguished Fellow, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) "This book is highly recommended to anyone who wishes to understand how EU foreign policy emerges from the complex interaction between member states and EU institutions. I particularly hope it will find many readers in Russia, where experts and policy makers alike tend to frame Germany's changing role and policy in terms of traditional great power politics." -- Dr. Sabine Fischer, Team Leader, Public Diplomacy. EU and Russia project, Moscow This book contributes to the debate about a new German power in Europe with an analysis of Germany's role in European Russia policy. It provides an up-to-date account of Germany's "Ostpolitik" and how Germany has influenced EU-Russia relations since the Eastern enlargement in 2004 - partly along, partly against the interests and preferences of new member states. The volume combines a rich empirical analysis of Russia policy with a theory-based perspective on Germany's power and influence in the EU. The findings demonstrate that despite Germany's central role, exercising power within the EU is dependent on legitimacy and acceptance by other member states. Liana Fix is a historian and political scientist. In her work, she focuses on German foreign policy, Russia and Eastern Europe as well as European security and has published widely in academia, think tanks and national and international media. She completed a doctorate degree at the Justus Liebig University Giessen and a Master's degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

This book contributes to the debate about a new German power in Europe with an analysis of Germany’s role in European Russia policy. It provides an up-to-date account of Germany’s “Ostpolitik” and how Germany has influenced EU-Russia relations since the Eastern enlargement in 2004 - partly along, partly against the interests and preferences of new member states. The volume combines a rich empirical analysis of Russia policy with a theory-based perspective on Germany’s power and influence in the EU. The findings demonstrate that despite Germany’s central role, exercising power within the EU is dependent on legitimacy and acceptance by other member states.

2Germany’s Role in European Russia Policy—A New German Power? provides an innovative framework for analysing how EU-Russia relations might develop well into the twenty-first century.3 -- Professor Angela Stent, Director, Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies, Georgetown University 2With her sophisticated, well-researched and astute assessment of Germany‘s influence on European policies towards Russia, Liana Fix effectively debunks many of the myths about Germany‘s alleged „hegemony2 in Europe. Essential reading for anyone interested in Germany in Europe.3 -- Professor Hanns W. Maull, Senior Distinguished Fellow, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) 2This book is highly recommended to anyone who wishes to understand how EU foreign policy emerges from the complex interaction between member states and EU institutions. I particularly hope it will find many readers in Russia, where experts and policy makers alike tend to frame Germany’s changing role and policy in terms of traditional great power politics.3 -- Dr. Sabine Fischer, Team Leader, Public Diplomacy. EU and Russia project, Moscow This book contributes to the debate about a new German power in Europe with an analysis of Germany’s role in European Russia policy. It provides an up-to-date account of Germany’s 2Ostpolitik3 and how Germany has influenced EU-Russia relations since the Eastern enlargement in 2004 - partly along, partly against the interests and preferences of new member states. The volume combines a rich empirical analysis of Russia policy with a theory-based perspective on Germany’s power and influence in the EU. The findings demonstrate that despite Germany’s central role, exercising power within the EU is dependent on legitimacy and acceptance by other member states. Liana Fix is a historian and political scientist. In her work, she focuses on German foreign policy, Russia and Eastern Europe as well as European security and has published widely in academia, think tanks and national and international media. She completed a doctorate degree at the Justus Liebig University Giessen and a Master’s degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

The relationship between Germany and Russia is Europe’s most important link with the largest country on the continent. But despite Germany’s unparalleled knowledge and historical experience, its policymakers struggle to accept that Moscow’s efforts to rebalance Europe at the cost of the cohesion of the EU and NATO are an attack on Germany’s core interests. This book explains the scale of the challenge facing Germany in managing relations with a changing Russia. It analyses how successive German governments from 1991 to 2014 misread Russian intentions, until Angela Merkel sharply recalibrated German and EU policy towards Moscow. The book also examines what lies behind efforts to revise Merkel’s bold policy shift, including attitudes inherited from the GDR and the role of Russian influence channels in Germany.

"Germany and the EU need a new security policy to include Russia and Eastern neighbourhood states which does not bow to domination by Moscow. In this new report, Stefan Meister says EU states should push Germany to take a leading role which is less deferential to the Kremlin. As the crisis in Ukraine continues to deepen, Germany's policy towards Russia is too idealistic and not compatible with Putin's realpolitik towards post-Soviet neighbours. Meister suggests: A new German policy towards Eastern Europe should be co-operative without being deferential towards the Kremlin -- European partners should capitalise on Berlin's new distance from Moscow to push Germany to take a leading role in common Russia and Eastern Partnership policies -- At the same time, the EU should help develop a new European security order that includes Russia and Eastern neighbourhood states without bowing to Moscow's desire to dominate its near abroad -- "Germany has sought political change through economic co-operation, but Russia's elite wants the transfer of technical know-how without political reform. The reality is that Russia's elite has long grasped that the rule of law, transparency, and increased political competition would curtail their power, privileges, and rent-seeking opportunities." -- "The current moment has brought about a real shift and a great opportunity to develop EU policy towards Russia. The grand coalition in Berlin is headed by a chancellery that is more critical of Russia than previous governments, and the crisis in Ukraine has shown the German leadership the significance of the eastern neighbourhood." -- Background: Since Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency in 2012, rifts have grown between Germany and Russia. Berlin has always been an advocate for Moscow in the European Union as Russia's modernisation dovetails neatly with German economic interests"--Publisher's description.

In 1945, when the Red Army marched in, eastern Germany was not "occupied" but "liberated." This, until the recent collapse of the Soviet Bloc, is what passed for history in the German Democratic Republic. Now, making use of newly opened archives in Russia and Germany, Norman Naimark reveals what happened during the Soviet occupation of eastern Germany from 1945 through 1949. His book offers a comprehensive look at Soviet policies in the occupied zone and their practical consequences for Germans and Russians alike--and, ultimately, for postwar Europe. In rich and lucid detail, Naimark captures the mood and the daily reality of the occupation, the chaos and contradictions of a period marked by rape and repression, the plundering of factories, the exploitation of German science, and the rise of the East German police state. Never have these practices and their place in the overall Soviet strategy, particularly the political development of the zone, received such thorough treatment. Here we have our first clear view of how the Russians regarded the postwar settlement and the German question, how they made policy on issues from reparations to technology transfer to the acquisition of uranium, how they justified their goals, how they met them or failed, and how they changed eastern Germany in the process. The Russians in Germany also takes us deep into the politics of culture as Naimark explores the ways in which Soviet officers used film, theater, and education to foster the Bolshevization of the zone. Unique in its broad, comparative approach to the Soviet military government in Germany, this book fills in a missing--and ultimately fascinating--chapter in the history of modern Europe.