Diplomacy beyond deterrence: Helmut Schmidt and the economic dimension of Ostpolitik

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe military aspects of Helmut Schmidt’s policy have been examined in depth. This article argues that Schmidt’s diplomacy went beyond deterrence. His Ostpolitik statecraft was aimed at the establishment of sustainable structures of cooperative security in East-West relations. It facilitated the strategic energy partnership between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Soviet Union. Schmidt’s economic détente outlasted the crisis of US-Soviet relations. The construction of the largest pipeline for the transport of natural gas from the Soviet Union to Western Europe in the first half of the 1980s (Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhgorod) helped to keep détente alive in times of crisis.