Ukraine crisis an opportunity for Germany to move past reputation for looking inward

Almost all contributions to Germany’s policy debate have touched on the country’s reputation as a foreign policy shirker/lurker, an inward-looking “large Switzerland” that, Garbo-like, wants to be alone. While some German analysts argue this reputation is undeserved, down to bad communication rather than policy, outside analysts led by Charles Grant of the Centre for European Reform, identify a key problem in Berlin’s belief that any problem can be solved through talking.

"Though an admirable starting point in foreign affairs, negotiation without a credible threat of sanctions or force cannot always be the solution," said Mr Grant, citing this as the Achilles’s heel of Berlin’s approach to Russia.