Werner Link

Werner Link (born July 14, 1934 in Quotshausen ) is a German political scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Cologne .

Life

Werner Link studied political science (with Wolfgang Abendroth ), German and history in Marburg and Berlin . He is considered an expert in foreign policy and international relations . In 1960 he completed his studies with the state examination. In 1961 the doctorate followed in Marburg. In 1970 he finally received his habilitation in Mannheim.

In 1971 Link was elected by the DFG as a full-time member and chairman of the Commission for Peace and Conflict Research in Bonn and appointed Professor of Political Science in Marburg. In 1971 he moved to the University of Kassel , where he was professor of political science until 1975. In the fall semester 1973 he was visiting professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC From 1976 to 1990 Link was professor for political science at the University of Trier . In 1983 he was elected founding chairman of the German Society for Political Science . Since 1990 he worked at the University of Cologne (retired 1999). Since 1992 he has also been chairman of the scientific directorate of the Federal Institute for Eastern and International Studies in Cologne, which was merged with the Science and Politics Foundation in Berlin in 2000 . Link was co-editor of the files on the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1990–2005 and co-editor of the Zeitschrift für Politik from 1997–2005 .

research

German-American relations

For his habilitation thesis “The American Stabilization Policy in Germany 1921-32” (Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1970) Link chose a period in European history after the First World War that had not yet been explored with such intensity. The study combines historical methods (i.e. above all an exact and critical study of sources) with political science questions, which Link gains from the critical-productive engagement with European and American theorists of international relations . To be mentioned here are the theoretical approaches of Stanley Hoffmann for competition analysis (cooperative vs. unilateral competition), of Oran Young for conflict mediation, of Wolfram Hanrieder for the "penetrated system" and above all the theorem of the "linkage groups" by Karl W. German , which Link bases his analysis on and which enables him not only to structure the immense empirical material, but also to overcome or overcome the artificial separation between domestic and foreign policy, between politics and economy, between government relations and cross-border relations between social groups. to convey clearly. This makes the complex relationships and interdependencies of the German-American dyad understandable and explainable in the context of the international post-war constellation. The differentiated findings, which Link summarizes in the final part of his study, can only be summarized here: Conceptually, the American policy on Germany was the “attempt by the United States and its political and economic leadership groups [...] to become an American economic empire into which Germany should be inserted as a link and partner in order to simultaneously bring the other European states to adapt the rules of this open door policy from Germany ”, while Germany was striving for“ a return to world politics through the world economy ”(p . 546f.). Under the given conditions of liberal-capitalist, democratic societies, cross-border relationships developed between social groups (here mainly industrialists and bankers) as well as between these and the government agencies of both states (so-called “transnational” relationships), which resulted in manifold associative tendencies between the two states. They brokered goods, capital and technologies, exercised important information and initiative functions, and the American liaison groups were at times even directly involved in the German decision-making process, which resulted in a transnational penetration, a so-called "penetrated system" (W. Hanrieder). Nonetheless, the American stabilization concept (which met German interests in the rejection of the Versailles Treaty) was unsuccessful from the point of view of realizing a lasting peace through peaceful balance of interests ("peaceful change") because it was economically strengthened again with the help of the USA Germany, as is well known, enforced nationalist-militarist groups that pursued a policy of unilateral competition without regard to the previous American partner.

Structural world conflicts

Building on the neo-realistic theoretical approach by Kenneth Waltz , Link describes and analyzes in his 1980 study "The East-West Conflict. The Organization of International Relations in the 20th Century" (Stuttgart et al.: Kohlhammer 1980, 2., revised u . extended edition 1988) the conflict between the liberal-democratic states of the west on the one hand and the communist states of the east on the other hand as a structural world conflict, because the opposing conceptions of order of the respective opponents are mutually exclusive related to the organization of international relations as a whole and were supported by the major powers dominating power politics and their respective allies. This conflict was ideologically already established before the Soviet Union became a state, but afterwards it became increasingly virulent as an interstate power conflict and, with the end of the "antagonistic cooperation" after the Second World War (1947/48) as the so-called "Cold War", it became dangerously acute. to finally lead to a first phase of detail. Link shows in detail how the process patterns of rapprochement and demarcation between the main antagonists and their allies were determined by the common and conflicting interests and above all by the distribution of power or its perception, which evoked the typical pattern of power and counterpower development. Overall, Link succeeds in a plausible, empirically saturated and stringently argumentative analysis and interpretation of this world conflict.

Reorganization of world politics

In his work "Reorganization of World Politics" (CH Beck, February 2001) Werner Link deals with the basic problems of global politics at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. In doing so, he contrasts the discrepancies between globalization and regionalization, standardization and differentiation, as well as hegemony and balance of competitive cooperation between great powers and regimes. The central question here is to what extent the political landscape of international relations will change after the end of the East-West conflict. H. End of bipolar world politics. Furthermore, with a view to the future, Link asks what effects the end of the “balance of horror” will have on human rights, world civilization, the cultural war, the threat to transnational business enterprises and considers what role the territorial state will play in the future.

Europe and America after the turning point

A somewhat older, but no less relevant publication, Europe and America after the New Age - The Return of History deals with the transatlantic relationship shaped by the East-West conflict. Here Link, together with Miles Kahler, discusses the historical momentum that is responsible for the importance of the transatlantic relationship. The question of continuities or discontinuities and the resulting consequences for stability remain in focus. The question of the continued existence of good transatlantic relations in the absence of a powerful threat is central. As an answer, Kahler / Link advocate a new view of relationships, in which one should break away from the tendency to view them historically and instead pay greater attention to the common cultural-ideological and economic structures. Overall, even after the conflict, one could not speak of an "undermining of transatlantic relations".

Works

• The history of the International Youth Association (IJB) and the International Socialist Struggle Association (ISK): a contribution to the history of the workers' movement in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich , Meisenheim am Glan 1964
• The American stabilization policy in Germany 1921-32 , Düsseldorf 1970
• The concept of peaceful cooperation and the beginning of the Cold War , Düsseldorf (Droste) 1971
• German and American trade unions and business people 1945-1975: a study on transnational relations , Düsseldorf (Droste) 1978
• The East-West Conflict: The Organization of International Relations in the 20th Century , Stuttgart (Kohlhammer) 1980, 2nd edition 1988
• Republic in transition. The Brandt era 1969-74 , Stuttgart / Mannheim 1986
• Republic in transition. The Schmidt era 1974-1982 , Stuttgart / Mannheim 1987
• Reorganization of world politics: Basic problems of global politics on the threshold of the 21st century , Munich (Verlag CH Beck) 1998,3. revised edition 2001
• On the way to a new Europe , Baden-Baden 2006
• Joint leadership and the culture of restraint in German foreign policy. In: Gunter Hellmann, Daniel Jacobi, Ursula Stark Urrestarazu (Ed.): "Earlier, more decisive and substantial"? The new debate about Germany's foreign policy. Journal for Foreign and Security Policy, Vol. 8 (2015), Supplement 1, pp. 289-312.

Web links

• Literature by and about Werner Link in the catalog of the German National Library
• Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties e. V. Board of Directors and Members
• Documentation on globalization as an opportunity II ( Memento from January 4, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
• Guest: Prof. Dr. Werner Link ( Memento from October 18, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) WDR - Vetro - Das Café mit Weltblick from September 28, 2002

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gerhard Lüdtke, Hans Strodel, Hans Jaeger: Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar . 17th edition. de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1992, ISBN 3-11-011754-1 .
2. ↑ See the review by Hans-Jürgen Schröder in: Historische Zeitschrift , Volume 215 (1972), pp. 452–455.