Germany: New Government - New Foreign Policy? Germany’s new coalition government has taken office. The conservatives and the liberals are keen to show they can achieve more than the previous grand coalition. On foreign policy, however, Chancellor Merkel and her new foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, still have some fine-tuning to do. The two are known to be at odds on a number of issues, prompting international observers to speculate that German foreign policy could be in for a change of direction.   Guido Westerwelle is often viewed as the political heir of Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who was the German foreign minister for 18 years. But Guido Westerwelle lacks experience on the international stage. He will have to re-focus from domestic issues, to events of global importance: Pakistan, North Korea, Iran's nuclear program and Afghanistan. US President Barack Obama wants to boost the number of international troops there. That is likely to be a key test of the new German government and the incoming defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. Europe will also present plenty of challenges for the new center-right coalition. Plans for a museum on post-war German expellees are threatening to create tension with Poland. And the coalition's position on Turkish membership of the EU remains unclear. What do you think. Will Germany's new government mean a new foreign policy? E-mail us at: Quadriga@dw-world.de ---------------------------------------------------------- Our guests were: Constanze Stelzenmüller - After completing her studies in Geneva and at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard, Constanze Stelzenmüller gained a doctorate in law from the University of Bonn. She later worked as an editor for the German weekly Die Zeit, where she developed a name for herself as an expert on defense and security issues. She also worked as guest lecturer at a number of American universities. Since 2005 she has run the Berlin office of The German Marshall Fun...