Germany's richly deserved 60-year holiday from leadership abroad is ending sooner than many here would like. Since World War II, Germans have become comfortable with standing in the shadows of power while the Americans, the French and others shoulder the costly burden of claiming to run the world.

But with power vacuums developing on the country's eastern and western borderlands and the United States bogged down in Iraq, Berlin understands that it is condemned to lead. A visitor finds the capital beset with angst -- but also bubbling with ideas -- about the approaching German moment in international affairs.

Berlin's new diplomatic activism complements the recent groundbreaking German military deployments abroad that have been the subject of previous columns, and the efforts by Wolfgang Schaeuble, Merkel's highly able interior minister, to counter militant Islam's challenges to European concepts of freedom of speech and equality of the sexes, the subject of a future column here.

conducting non-partisan voter registration for U.S. citizens residing in Germany, including assistance with absentee ballots for U.S. federal elections; voter outreach including providing information about Republican policies and candidates; promoting the principles of the U.S. Republican Party through hosting events, fundraising and public outreach; representing U.S. citizens living in Germany in the political process in the United States; and strengthening German-American relations through intercultural exchange and dialogue, including working closely with German organizations and media outlets.

The articles are not selected to reflect the views of RA Germany or its members, but to add to an environment of real intellectual diversity by amplifying Conservative perspectives. In the real world policy is about difficult choices and trade-offs. Transatlantic relations would be well-served by less simplification of the challenges before us and more serious discussion of the actual dilemmas we face.