Germany as a Civilian Power?

The depiction of Germany as a "civilian power", committed to non-military means, has deeply influenced analysis of German foreign policy since the last world war. The term "civilian power" evokes the singularity of the pre-unification West German state which defined its foreign policy in reaction to the violent excesses of the Nazi era, and which has subsequently been bound into systems of collective defence and multilateral cooperation as a member of NATO and the United Nations, in which the use of force was a sanction of the very last resort, and then only under certain defensive conditions. This collection addresses a number of extremely important themes - is Germany still a "civilian power"? To what extent is the use of military power conceivable? Is the use of such power restricted to humanitarian intervention under the auspices of the UN? Is Germany restricted to participation on collective action in a multilateral institutional framework? Or is she becoming more "normal" in her attitude towards military power?
The title probes German foreign policy during the 1990s in a number of different fields, ranging from policies towards nuclear weapons and the use of force to European integration, from human rights policies to German participation in NATO's war in Kosovo. The findings throw light both on Germany's foreign policies during the 1990s, and on theories of international relations.