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Diffusion in Franco-German Relations

A Different Perspective on a History of Cooperation and Conflict

Palgrave Macmillan

Authors:

  • Argues that the history of France and Germany cannot be understood without understanding how norms and ideas have travelled across the Rhine, especially in times of ‘enmity’
  • Provides an in-depth analysis of diffusion processes in eight historical case studies, identifying actors, mechanisms, and outcomes
  • Offers new insights into key episodes of the Franco-German relationship based on recent Francophone and Germanophone historiography

Part of the book series: Studies in Diplomacy and International Relations (SID)

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About this book

This book analyses and compares instances of the diffusion of political norms and ideas in the history of Franco-German relations. While this relationship is often described as a history evolving from enmity over reconciliation to friendship, the book uses the concept of diffusion as a complementary analytical perspective to emphasize how political norms and ideas originating in one society have influenced the other, especially in periods of intergovernmental conflict. Established in International Relations to explain transnational normative change in contemporary contexts, the framework of diffusion is heuristically useful to explore how various types of actors have contributed, using analytically different mechanisms, to normative change across the Rhine. The book presents eight case studies featuring various contents and mechanisms of ideational diffusion taken from three contexts of Franco-German history, including the French Revolution, the Franco-Prussian War, and Franco-German rapprochement after 1945. Arguing that phenomena that are often seen as genuinely ‘national’ evolutions, such as German nationalism or the French system of primary education, cannot be understood without taking into account the reception and emulation of norms from across the Rhine, the book should help students and scholars to overcome the limits of methodological nationalism when studying bilateral relationships, in the Franco-German context and elsewhere.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Sciences Po Lille & CERAPS University of Lille, Lille, France

    Eric Sangar

About the author

Eric Sangar is Lecturer in Political Science at Sciences Po Lille, France, a member of the research centre CERAPS, University of Lille, and an associated member of the Centre Emile Durkheim at Sciences Po Bordeaux. He authored the monograph Historical Experience: Burden or Bonus in Today’s Wars? and co-edited the volume Researching Emotions in International Relations.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access