Przesłanki i wyzwania poszukiwania nowej roli międzynarodowej Niemiec w dobie narastających kryzysów Unii Europejskiej – wybrane problemy badań i praktyki politycznej w XXI wieku

The article attempts to synthetically analyze the premises and challenges involving Germany’s search for new international role and responsibility in the era of snowballing crises afflicting the European Union. The basic task of the analysis is to show the interdependence between various aspects of theoretical and applied studies as well as their impact on practical formulation of Germany’s international position in the 21st century by the subsequent federal governments on the examples of the eurozone crisis (2010–2015) and the EU’s migration crisis lasting since the midst of the 2015. The text consists of three parts, in which the following issues were presented in sequence: 1) the general premises of the evolution of the unifi ed Germany’s international role; 2) the hunt for new international role and responsibility of Germany in the context of attempts to solve the eurozone crisis after 2010; 3) the challenges for German leadership in the EU with particular reference to the chancellor Angela Merkel’s role in migration crisis of 2015/2016. The principal thesis of the paper is as follows: Due to the giant economic-fi nancial potential as well as the important position within the EU, Germany played a crucial role in the endeavours to fi nish the crisis and to stabilize the eurozone after 2010. However, the serious diffi culties accompanying massive infl ow of illegal refugees to Germany and the entire Europe since the half of 2015, which so far have not been unambiguously solved, are truly enormous challenges for the German and chancellor Angela Merkel’s leadership in the EU.