Why do states similar in size, resources and capabilities significantly differ in their basic orientations and actions across major domains in foreign policy, security and defense? This book addresses this important question by analyzing the major differences between the foreign policies of France and Germany over extended periods of time. It investigates French and German foreign policy generally, as well as specific policies, attitudes and orientations towards international institutional orders, alliance politics, nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence doctrines, military missions and deployment, arms procurement and arms production, and arms exports. In analyzing and explaining the formation of national interests and of foreign and security policies, the book stresses the importance of history, and, in particular, of dominant domestic interpretations of its meaning and political implications.
