Letter from Berlin: Rising Star Guttenberg Embraces Difficult Defense Job

• Print
• E-Mail
• Feedback

While few would envy Guttenberg his difficult new role, he seems to relish it. Speaking to the troops on Thursday night in Mazar-e-Sharif, Guttenberg said that his new job lay "close to his heart." The minister has something of a military pedigree, after his military service he continued to serve as a reservist. Guttenberg is married to a descendent of Otto von Bismarck and one of his ancestors was an officer executed in 1944 for his involvement in the plot to kill Adolf Hitler.

The ease with which he has taken to the world stage makes it was almost easy to forget that the 37-year-old politician only came to national prominence last February when he was named economics minister after the surprise resignation of Michael Glos. At that stage Guttenberg had served just 100 days as the general secretary of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats.

No Empty Promises

The appointment came as a surprise and concerns were voiced at a time that, with Germany in the economic doldrums, it was foolhardy to appoint someone with so little experience. Yet, the young aristocrat with the slicked-back hair soon won over the public with his straight talking style and his determination to avoid making empty promises.

He publicly questioned the rush to rescue troubled automaker Opel, saying that an "orderly insolvency" could be a better option. This went down well with the public and in general elections on Sept. 27 he won 68 percent of the vote in his electoral district, the highest direct vote of any member of the German parliament.

Guttenberg, who speaks fluent English, first made his mark as the CSU's foreign policy expert in the Bundestag and has long cultivated contacts across the Atlantic. He is known in practically every think tank in Washington, and has good ties with both Democrats and Republicans. Now he is where he always wanted to be, in a foreign policy position.

And he has hit the ground running with his visit to Kabul this week. Guttenberg was direct in warning Afghan President Hamid Karzai that he had to show that there is discernible progress in the country, particularly when it came to tackling corruption.

"We are committed to our mission here, but we need to know what the Afghan government plans as the next step and how they want to succeed in that," Guttenberg told reporters after the meeting.

Exit Troops

Despite his announcement that he is sending an additional 120 troops, Guttenberg has said that the current mandate will likely be approved without any troop increases for now when it comes up for renewal in the German parliament before mid-December. The minister has also said that Berlin "must not be shy about using the term exit strategy."

Germany is holding on until after an international conference on Afghanistan planned for early next year before making any decisions about sending more troops. "If we should have to realign our objectives after the Afghanistan conference, then we would also have to think about our own capabilities there," Guttenberg told German broadcaster ARD on Wednesday.

Germany and the other NATO allies in Afghanistan are effectively in limbo while US President Barack Obama weighs Washington's strategy for the Afghan conflict. The mission has been made more difficult by the tainted re-election of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

'Not Just about PR'

Karzai was declared president after his opponent Abdullah Abdullah withdrew from a run-off round that had been forced on the Karzai by the international community due to massive electoral fraud in the first round.

According to Hippler, this election has further harmed the legitimacy of the Afghan government, making it harder to sell the mission back home in Germany. "The strategy of the international community was supporting and strengthening the Afghan state." But increasingly people don't believe in that strategy. "The German public doesn't really understand what the point is of being there."

Guttenberg may not be the PR disaster that his predecessor was but, "this is not just about PR," says Hippler.

"By not making things worse you are not going to convince the public that a losing war is something good."

• Back
• 1
• | 2

• Part 1: Rising Star Guttenberg Embraces Difficult Defense Job
• Part 2: Taking to the World Stage with Ease