Parties, Parliaments, and Foreign Policy in Times of Increasing Politicization

Author: Dr. Falk Ostermann

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Helmut Breitmeier

Since the protests at the WTO Seattle Summit in 1999, we witness an increasing contestation of national foreign policy decisions that is directed both against economic and political globalization in general as well as against its institutions/organizations and supporting cooperative/integrative policies at the national, European, and global level. Events like the 2003 Iraq War and the 2008 financial/debt crisis and, with relation to Germany, the sustained arrival of refugees in 2015 have further ignited political contestation of foreign policy, international integration, and institutionalization in the societal and political realm. Hence, since the establishment of the AfD as populist radical-right force in German politics, of similar forces elsewhere, and the presidence of Donald Trump (2017-2021), the contestation of globalization and of the foreign policy and European acquis intégratif/coopératif have become a major fault lines in national, regional/European, and international politics.

While there is a well-developed body of literature on contestation of European politics, including the role of parties and cleavages, the role of parties in the politicization of security and defense policy has received only scarce attention, or it is mainly US-centered or bureaucratically oriented. This project fills this gap. Its cumulative studies advance both conceptual-theoretical as well as empirical insights into the role of parties in foreign policy and its politicization. The project particularly investigates issues of military intervention and connected questions of legislative-executive relations in defense policy. It addresses the issues from both comparative and case-oriented angles.