Wishful Thinking? Germany’s Push for U.N. Diplomacy on Syria

Wishful Thinking? Germany’s Push for U.N. Diplomacy on Syria
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier addresses the general debate of the sixty-ninth session of the General Assembly, United Nations, New York, Sept. 27, 2015 (U.N. Kim Haughton).

Germany has never been an entirely comfortable power at the United Nations. The Security Council is, as Russian diplomats like to note, still run by the countries that defeated Hitler in 1945. East and West Germany did not even join the U.N. until 1973. Nevertheless, Berlin now pays over 7 percent of the U.N. budget, while Britain and France cover less than 6 percent each. At regular intervals, the Germans launch quixotic campaigns to win a permanent seat on the Security Council. Time and again, these plow into the sand.

Despite these bids for a bigger role, German diplomats often seem quite happy with their limited role at the U.N. It demonstrates how far the country has come since its power-hungry excesses of the early 20th century. As Hans Kundnani has argued in a recent book, it also suits Berlin to avoid picking costly fights with economic partners such as China and Russia at the Security Council. Berlin made this manifest with its decision to abstain in the council vote on the Libyan war in 2011. As I noted in a paper for the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in June, “officials in Berlin still do not see the UN as a crucial part of their security strategy, or know much about it.”

Yet last week, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier launched a blunt attack on the Security Council’s divisions and failure to take real action over Syria.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review