War is decided on the battlefield peace is decided in Berlin

The corridors of power run through Berlin, not Washington, when it comes to solving

JOHN Herbst, a former US diplomat, wasn’t trying to flatter his German hosts when he took a dig at Washington late last month. He was just describing a new reality.

“Berlin is the critical capital in the West for settling a just solution to the crisis in Ukraine”, he said while introducing a think-tank panel discussion on human rights in Crimea.