Coming to terms with a ‘European identity’: The Sudeten Germans between Bonn and Prague

Abstract

This assessment of Germany's European identity examines the impact of the ‘Sudeten German question’ on relations between Bonn and Prague. The analysis joins this issue with a proposed theoretical approach to the formulation of post‐Cold War German foreign policy priorities. This view of interest formation combines Keohane's institutionalism and Wendt's constructivism to argue that institutionalised international interaction may produce a collective identity. The study concludes that Bonn's post‐1989 policies concerning Czechoslovakia and the Sudeten German conflict have reflected efforts to define German foreign policy priorities in terms of collective interests — embodied in the framework of established international European institutions.