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The article takes stock of German foreign policy under the Merkel IV government and adopts an analytical perspective that zooms in on the role of coalition politics. Specifically, it explores the impact of party-political contestation inside the 'grand coalition' both between (inter-party contestation) and within (intra-party contestation) the coalition partners on the foreign policy record of the Merkel IV government. In the empirical analysis, the discussion focuses on selected foreign policy areas that dominated the German foreign policy agenda during the Merkel IV government, namely transatlantic relations, European integration, the UN and multilateralism as well as Germany's relations to autocratic states, in particular Russia and China. While the analysis points to some foreign policy contestation between and within the coalition parties, it finds that the foreign policy of the Merkel IV government remained largely unaffected by party political contestation inside the 'grand coalition'. The article argues that the limited influence of coalition politics points to the key role of the foreign policy executive in German foreign policy and reflects the broad foreign policy consensus at the centre of the German party system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article maps party support for national EU-related referendums across the EU after Brexit. It is motivated by conflicting expectations about the trajectory of EU referendum politics in the post-Brexit environment which foreground either possible contagion or deterrent effects of the Brexit referendum. Against this background, the article explores the scope of party support for EU referendums in EU member states, which types of political parties endorse popular votes on European issues and how the Brexit experience has affected EU referendum support among European parties. To that purpose, the article presents novel data from an EU-wide (except Ireland) expert survey. The findings show that EU referendum support varies greatly between national party systems and that it comes mainly from Eurosceptic opposition parties, often on the populist far right. The impact of the Brexit precedent on party positions on EU referendums is relatively weak overall and uneven across parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Highlights and Abstract The main contribution of this article is that it: Introduces a distinction between different pathways for junior partner influence on the foreign policy of coalition governments;, Provides nuanced insights into the effects of coalition government on foreign policy as well as on the causal mechanisms behind these effects;, Contributes to the 'unpacking' of coalitions and the analysis of coalition governance more generally;, Features a comparative analysis of the current coalition governments in the United Kingdom and Germany., This article contributes to research on the foreign policy influence of junior partners in coalition governments. In particular, it takes up the call to pay greater attention to different patterns and pathways of such influence. To this purpose, this article distinguishes two types of coalition set-ups for foreign policy making. In the first type, junior partners hold one or more departments in the foreign policy executive, and their foreign policy influence rests on the powers that controlling ministries in the field brings. In the second type, junior partners do not hold any department in foreign affairs, and their influence comes from their ability to constrain the discretion of the senior partner in foreign policy. The article exemplifies its theoretical contentions in comparative case studies on the current coalition governments in Germany and the UK, which represent the first and second type respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]