Military

Germany: Reluctant military giant?

Should Germany become a major military power? And will it happen?

With Vladimir Putin destabilising the east, Middle Eastern and Asian conflicts spurring new migration into Europe, and Donald Trump questioning US commitment to NATO, Germany has good reason to feel insecure.

Chancellor Merkel told Germans in May that "we must fight for our future ourselves as Europeans". German troops have been deployed in locations ranging from Lithuania to Afghanistan and Mali. And Merkel has promised to raise German defence spending.

But Germany and its Chancellor face a fundamental problem. Most Germans are very reluctant to go down this road.

They regard their own army with suspicion - an attitude reinforced by a recent scandal involving the Bundeswehr. Foreign deployments are tightly restricted by German law and parliament.