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The Global Village

Baracking the World

By SPIEGEL Staff

More than any of his predecessors, Barack Obama was a global candidate. Hundreds of thousands celebrated his victory around the globe. But not everyone is ecstatic. SPIEGEL ONLINE correspondents share their thoughts from around the world.

Although the first reliable election returns were still hours away, the Bertelsmann Foundation's building in Berlin was already packed by 9 p.m. local time. Here in a mini-palace on the east end of Unter den Linden, the German capital's signature boulevard, Berlin's politicos, journalists and others in the well-connected class had assembled for burgers, popcorn and beer.

It was a gathering not unlike dozens of others that dot the Berlin social calendar throughout the year. And yet, there was a palpable sense that Tuesday night was different. One could feel a giddy excitement seeping through the suited stuffiness. It was as if Berliners were pooling their psychic power in an effort to will Barack Obama to victory.

Across the city, it was more of the same. Thousands of American ex-pats gathered at dozens of election parties, and they were joined by thousands of Germans just as anxious about the outcome of a vote thousands of miles away.

A contest so emotional and so historic inevitably calls to mind epic time horizons. Still, as commentators on TV mused about the 232 years it has taken to fulfill the American Declaration of Independence, or about the 45 years that have passed since Martin Luther King first shouted to the world "I have a Dream," another, much smaller number could be heard on the lips of the drunken, nervous, political junkies who found themselves hunched over laptops or perched around television screens in the dead of the German night.

But Germany was just a microcosm of what was going on across the globe. People from Australia to India, Brazil to Russia watched with bated breath as the returns came in. Never before had an American presidential election generated so much international interest; never before had the globe been so clear about who it wanted Americans to cast their vote for.

With Barack Obama now having won the election, though, it seems likely that he won't enjoy much of a grace period. The list of problems facing him and the world is daunting, and already some of them are rearing their heads. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced on Wednesday that he would be stationing missiles in Kaliningrad, the island of Russian territory that borders European Union members Lithuania and Poland.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai also sent a clear message, saying that the killing of civilians by NATO troops in Afghanistan has to stop. "The war on terrorism cannot be fought in Afghan villages," he said.

And not to be outdone, a statement from the Iranian military was broadcast on state radio in Iran warning that, should the country's airspace be violated, Iran's armed forces "will respond."

Nevertheless, the global mood was generally one of cautious optimism. SPIEGEL correspondents from around the world filed brief snapshots on Wednesday. Just click on the flags in the box at the left.