Word: germane
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...summit, Japan backed calls by the U.S. for greater fiscal spending to combat the recession - moves opposed by leaders of several European countries including France and Germany, who fear that unchecked government spending will lead to rampant inflation. But Aso dismissed German Chancellor Merkel's caution about fiscal stimulus before heading to London. "The fact that he picked a fight with Merkel plays very well - like he's one of the big boys," says Gerald Curtis, a professor at Columbia University who has written extensively about Japanese politics. "He looks like a leader. Even though people are nervous about increasing...
...about divisions between the U.S. and Europe. After his packed schedule at London's G20 summit, his day in Strasbourg seemed almost relaxed, and included an hour at a youth town-hall meeting, where he answered questions about issues such as climate change and African poverty, before meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel; the NATO summit itself is scheduled as a three-hour meeting on Saturday morning. At the press conference with Sarkozy, Obama limited himself to saying that "the more capability we see here in Europe the happier the United States will be, the more effective we will...
...defense. Instead of helicopters which are suited for Afghanistan's landscape, or more basic items like protective armor, European spending has favored big-ticket items like nuclear submarines and the Eurofighter. "Maybe these things are very important against some enemy - perhaps China," says Sascha Lange, military researcher for the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. "But we have this very strong need for simply boots on the ground." Right now, there are not enough of them...
...tone was set from Obama's first public remarks in London on Wednesday, at a press conference with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, where the American President said he had come "to listen, not to lecture." At a joint appearance with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Baden-Baden on Friday, a German reporter asked Obama about his "grand designs" for NATO. "I don't come bearing grand designs," Obama said, scrapping the leadership role the U.S. maintained through the Cold War. "I'm here to listen, to share ideas and to jointly, as one of many NATO allies, help shape...
...what exactly is NATO's purpose? That question hangs like a cloud of existential angst over the Atlantic Alliance's 60th birthday celebration this weekend. The festivities, which will span the Franco-German border, are suffused with the symbolism of a Cold War that brought NATO into being but whose end left the Alliance with no clear mission or identity. Hence the title of this anniversary summit: "NATO in 2020: What Lies Ahead...