The political memoirs of former German foreign minister and vice-chancellor Joschka Fischer!
The red-green government’s seven-year reign from 1998 to 2005 has become the subject of contemporary memoirs and evaluations sooner than expected. As foreign minister and vice-chancellor, Joschka Fischer played a decisive role in determining the policies of this coalition government. In this major autobiographical work, Fischer describes foreign policy at a time of profound international upheaval, giving an account of crises – from Kosovo to September 11, from Afghanistan to the Iraq war. He examines the historical decisions which the government was forced to make, portrays international players from George W. Bush to Yasser Arafat or Kofi Annan, and analyses the potential threats posed by the Middle East and the Pakistan-India conflict. He also takes a look at the debate on Turkey’s bid for EU membership, the reform of the UN and the politics of Russia and China. His memoirs are embedded in the most important political events and crises of our time, in party-political struggles and the controversy surrounding Fischer’s visa policy and student past.
Joschka Fischer has been a guest professor of international crisis diplomacy at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School since summer 2006. He has written an extremely lively, controversial, critical and self-critical book of great narrative and analytical quality.
