Germany as a Dividual Actor: Competing Social Logics and their Political Articulations

Abstract

This article introduces a ‘dividual actor’ approach as a novel way of explaining German foreign policy. It presents its main tenets and demonstrates its relevance–both theoretically and in an illustrative sketch of German arms’ exports policy. The article starts from the observation that mainstream approaches, exemplified here by civilian power and geo-economic power, struggle to explain the recurring inconsistencies and tensions in German foreign policy. I argue that this is rooted in problematic assumptions about actorness, which is seen as coherent and unfolding linearly over time. As an alternative, I construct the dividual actor framework and develop it via the concepts of social logics, which capture recurring patterns in foreign policy, and articulation, which grasps the contingent and political moment in decision making. The notion of a dividual actor with multiple identities provides a theoretical explanation for the recurring inconsistencies in Berlin's actions. It also opens space for novel insights, by bridging the analysis of social patterns with the analysis of how these patterns are reshaped through political decision-making. Lastly, it offers a way of embracing some empirical insights of civilian and geo-economic power by incorporating them into a more open-ended and context-specific framework.