berlin brief

US General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, believed it was worth spending 14 hours on a bus to make it from Paris to Berlin last week. Europe was stuck in an ash cloud that stopped most of its air traffic.

McChrystal’s visit on 21 April 2010 came at a crucial moment of Germany’s engagament in Afghanistan. Within a couple of weeks, seven German soldiers have lost their lives there. On 9 April 2010, Chancellor Merkel for the first time attended a funeral for German soldiers that died in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan. On 24 April 2010, another one followed.

The German public is increasingly confronted with the realities of the war in Afghanistan. McChrystal’s visit was another reminder of what it means to be part of the ISAF mission’s new “partnering” strategy. (more…)

Both the Federal Chancellery and the Foreign Office in official statements welcomed the United States’ announcement that Washington will no longer be ready to react with a nuclear strike if attacked by conventional weapons.

Chancellor Merkel will travel to Washington next week to attend the Nuclear Summit.

For Spiegel Online International, Eric Kelsey and Candice Novak compiled reactions to the US’s strategic shift in the German print media: (more…)

I want to draw your attention to Spiegel Online International’s Daily Newsletter.

Good way to catch up with what is going on in Germany; and it includes the “World from Berlin” press review.

The “World from Berlin” gives you access to opinions in the leading German newspapers like Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Financial Times Deutschland or Berliner Zeitung.

Take a look at the current issue of the “World from Berlin”.

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