This is the conclusion drawn by a year-long project to work out the basic features of future German foreign policy, with the participation of the head of the foreign ministry's Policy Planning Staff. The document contends that, because the United States is showing signs of weakening, Germany, currently a "policy shaping power in waiting," should develop stronger global activities to become a leading power.

This does not merely mean taking on "troublemaker" countries - such as Iran and Venezuela - but also finding the appropriate means for handling emerging countries, not unconditionally prepared to surrender to the Western leadership. This could also be achieved with the assistance of cooperative techniques - patterned along the lines of Bonn's Ostpolitik during the 1970s ("transformation through convergence").

The members of the project take it for granted that German global policy must also [include] military means - "including combat missions." These results are included in a paper jointly published by the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF).

The analysis is based on the assessment that today's Germany is "more powerful and influential" than "any democratic Germany in history." In fact, for some time Germany has openly laid claim to the "role of leader" of the EU - a hegemonic claim, which both friends and foes of Berlin's hegemony currently more or less openly acknowledge. "Germany's growth in power opens new opportunities for influence," according to the strategy paper, "That is cause for a re-evaluation of its international relations."