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Germany and Central Europe Drifting Apart? The Case of Croatia

Germany plays an important role in Croatian political discourse since the very early stage of its independence in the early 90s. It was a very prominent advocate of recognition of Croatia’s independence and actually among the first to officially recognise the country’s statehood, prior to joint EC recognition. While being a generous provider of humanitarian aid in the early 90s and a strong supporter of Croatia’s EU and NATO bid, it used extensively the possibilities provided by conditionality mechanisms and its role of one of strongest members of both clubs to influence political and economic developments in Croatia and maximise its influence in the post-Cold War period Southeast Europe. Obviously, an outspoken and sizeable Croatian community in Germany on the one hand and a necessity of post-unification Germany to regain political relevance in the post-Cold War on the other significantly contributed to that. This paper attempts to analyse German-Croatian relations in the context of changing political environment characterised with various aforementioned elements. It tries to measure the institutional connectedness between the two, the level of convergence of national policies of the two with broader joint EU policies, their position towards emerging global challenges and geostrategic repositioning in the wider IR arena, as well as the image of one among the population of other.

Croatia, Germany, transition process, EU and NATO accession, bilateral relations

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