External View

Taboos sometimes have to be broken. No, not the much-undermined taboo against the use of military force, but the journalistic rule that says: "Never shalt thou quote a taxi driver." But sometimes you just have to. This taxi driver was an elective Berliner and a born Croat, and he was keen to discuss Germany's image abroad. On the car radio, a newsreader had just announced that Russia was stocking up its troops on the Ukrainian border again.

His monologue, punctuated by sharp braking and evasive maneuvers imposed by the countless road works in Berlin, ran more or less like this: "First the Russians took Crimea, now they are meddling with Eastern Ukraine … but they are just trying to deflect attention from the fact that they can’t handle modernisation … Meanwhile, the Ukrainians want to join Europe, because they see how the Poles have developed … and what’s helped the Poles is that they are in the EU and in NATO, plus the German-Polish friendship you've got today … Even in the Balkans, the Serbs now want to join the EU and NATO too … And when we Croats discuss how to do something, people just say 'let's do it like in Germany, then it'll be all right. Maybe it'll be a stretch for us, but that way we can leapfrog a couple of phases.'"  

His customer listened, fascinated. On the previous evening, she had been invited to give a talk on German foreign policy in a town on her country’s Baltic coast. Most of her listeners — respected lawyers, managers, bankers and other city notables — expressed complete scepticism, even anger. A few days earlier, Germany's Federal President Joachim Gauck (not a stranger to the town) had repeated the admonition he had first made at the Munich Security Conference in January, saying that Germany should take on greater responsibilities in foreign policy — including military missions. Most of the guests at the dinner expressed disapproval. 

Some said: "Our neighbors and partners don't want that!" Some remarked that Germany's history continues to dictate restraint—particularly in the Ukraine conflict. Others felt that the President was advocating new wars. Some even added that the demonstrators in Ukraine were being paid by American companies. Russia, they said, was justified in defending itself against an "encirclement" by NATO that had begun with a Western breach of promise not to admit the states of Eastern Europe to the military alliance. "Let me summarize," said one guest, "we should stay out of such situations."

Involvement versus restraint: Two snapshots from Germany, two diametrically opposed views of German foreign policy. Yet both are representative.