From a commercial state to the mainstay of Europe. The new economic model informing Bonn's foreign and European parties

The economic guideline for Germany's foreign and european policies'' the article analyses the government's policy in the contest of the West-German development after World War II. Since 1989 the conservativ-liberal government has formulated a new guideline under the heading of ''Standort'' (economic location). This concept follows the tradition of older trade-state ideas while at the same time it sets new priorities: a) the integration and reform of European institutions in order to create a global actor; b) a geopolitical partnership with the U.S. and c) the economic, social and political stabilization of eastern Europe. ks a status-quo power Germany's economic and political interests in securing the international system of complex interdependence forms the core of its foreign policy perspectives.