According to Dieter Dettke, Germany’s refusal to participate in the Iraq war signaled a resumption of the country's willingness to assert itself in global affairs, even in the face of contradictory U.S. desires.

Germany Says "No" reviews the country’s actions in major international crises from the first Gulf War to the war with Iraq, concluding—in contrast to many models of contemporary German foreign policy—that the country's civilian power paradigm has been succeeded by a defensive structural realist approach. Dettke traces the implications of this change for Germany’s participation in multilateral institutions as well as bilateral relations with the U.S., France, Russia, China, and India.