Spohr, Kristina The Global Chancellor: Helmut Schmidt and the Reshaping of the International Order (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 385 Communist candidates featuring at high levels in Tuđman’s nationalist establishment, whilst the most prominent non-Communists, such as Ivan Zvonimir Čičak and Dražen Budiša, opted either for the opposition, or human rights and minority protection activism. Yet Batović offers nothing on the links between the Communist leadership of Croatia and the more radical and nationalist Matica Hrvatska, which was a beacon for intellectuals and student activists. Nor is there any consideration of how realistic the demands for hard currency and language sovereignty were, given that Yugoslavia had central price and currency control and Croatia had a large and powerful Serbian ethnic group. Meanwhile, a full evaluation of the Soviet Union’s role awaits the opening of their archives. With the Croatian question a key issue for both the first and second Yugoslavia, it is surprising that this is the first scholarly monograph to appear on the subject. The text has been impeccably translated into English and is meticulously packaged and presented with only a handful of typos and problems with Slavic diacritics. The endnotes are so rich that they function as an annotated bibliography of Croatian/Serbian- and English-language literature that goes far beyond the declared focus of the book to cover the entire history of Socialist Yugoslavia. Batović’s study would have benefited, however, from a discussion of its sources and also definitions of its key terms — liberal, liberalism, decentralization, democracy and parliamentarism — in the context of Socialist Yugoslavia. Furthermore, it is regrettable that 1945 is taken as a year zero and that there is hardly any mention of the first Yugoslavia or the civil war that took place alongside the Partisan resistance during World War Two, both of which fed into the grievances of the ‘Croatian Spring’ and strongly influenced issues of nationalism in Yugoslavia. This is particularly significant, since Tito and the defenders of the Yugoslav federation wanted to believe that the issues surrounding the relationship between Yugoslavia’s nations and republics were solved during the war through their joint resistance against the Nazi invaders and local nationalist collaborators. UCL SSEES Bojan Aleksov Spohr, Kristina. The Global Chancellor: Helmut Schmidt and the Reshaping of the International Order. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2016. xvi + 211 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. £35.00. The Federal Republic of Germany emerged as a significant international player in the late 1960s and 1970s thanks to two leaders. The first was Willy Brandt, major of Berlin, 1957–66 and Federal chancellor 1969–74. Brandt’s name is SEER, 96, 2, APRIL 2018 386 synonymous with Ostpolitik, the efforts towards an understanding with the other Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and the Soviet Union. His work led to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971. The other leader was Brandt’s successor, Helmut Schmidt, who served as chancellor from 1974 to 1982 and has never enjoyed the same amount of attention. It is the aim of Kristina Spohr’s excellent new book to rectify this omission. Its findings are rooted in considerable research in Schmidt’s papers, official German sources, and those of the United States, British and French governments, as well as an extensive range of interviews with Schmidt. As Spohr explains, Schmidt was not associated with a similar initiative or achievement. Yet he was chancellor at a pivotal period when Western countries faced serious economic crises and security challenges. His ‘unusual versatility in security and economics’ (p. 2) meant that he was especially well-suited to addressing these problems and soon assumed a massive presence on the international stage. He also continued to be an important foreign policy intellectual after his departure from office. He founded the newspaper, Die Zeit, and wrote numerous thoughtful studies, too few of which were translated into English. Spohr offers a compact analysis rather than a detailed biographical study of Schmidt’s term as chancellor. Its aim is not to be comprehensive, for it omits many topics like Franco-German relations and domestic and international terrorism. Rather, it concentrates on ‘peace and security at a higher level’ (p. 5), placing Schmidt and his work in a global context, and not just within the ambit...