German military force is a good thing. The world needs more of it. That is the difficult lesson Germany and Europe have learned since the end of the cold war. It is a message that runs through yesterday's government strategy paper on a new, more expeditionary army.

The paper recognises the Bundes- wehr's key tasks are peacekeeping and peacemaking across the world, rather than guarding Germany's unthreatened borders. The once traumatic issue of deploying German troops overseas - a taboo subject for much of the postwar period - is addressed head on.