Quadriga - Bundeswehr Missions: Is the Military Ready?

Currently the German government is considering sending troops to train Iraqi soldiers. And Berlin is also preparing to send drones to patrol the cease-fire in Eastern Ukraine.

But now reports have identified serious problems and risks in the German military’s biggest arms projects. These reports were personally commissioned by Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, who said she felt internal controls were insufficient.

The report points to years of mismanagement in major defense projects, citing a series of mishaps in the production of airplanes, ships and tanks. It also uncovered complicated and opaque structures as well as flawed contracts with arms contractors to the detriment of tax payers’ interests.

Will the Bundeswehr be able to live up to growing demands while it remains bogged down by this crisis? Or can the military use this crisis as a chance to modernize? And just what promises can Germany make to its NATO partners?

Bundeswehr Missions: Is the Military Ready?
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Our guests:

Alison Smale- is a British journalist who graduated from Stanford University in the US. In December 2008, she became the first woman to take up the post of Executive Editor at the International Herald Tribune. In her reporting days, Alison Smale was AP's bureau chief for Eastern Europe, where she covered the rise of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia and changes in Russia. As Deputy Foreign Editor at The New York Times she organized much of the paper's coverage of the Iraq war and the war in Afghanistan. She is now the New York Times bureau chief in Berlin.

Judy Dempsey- After training as a journalist in Ireland, Ms Dempsey embarked on an international career: From the 1980s to early 1990s she reported from Eastern Europe. In 1996 she took over the Financial Times' bureau in Jerusalem where she remained until 2001. Judy Dempsey has won numerous awards for her work, including the Anglo-German Prize and the Foreign Press Association Award. She was a Columnist for the International Herald Tribune and works now as a Senior Associate at Carnegie Europe and editor-in-chief of Strategic Europe.

Johannes Leithäuser- is a historian, political scientist and an economist. As a student, he freelanced for a number of newspapers, before eventually taking a job with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He's been there ever since. Fifteen years ago he joined the paper's Berlinbureau as its East German correspondent. He also served as a correspondent in Londonfor several years. Today, his areas of expertise include domestic politics, as well as European and foreign affairs.