Germany slowly comes to terms with sending its armed forces abroad

"Afghanistan turned out a lot less safe than they thought it was going to be, but the Germans toughed it out, changed their rules of engagement, and fired back," said Tomas Valasek, the director of foreign policy and defence at the Centre for European Reform.

"Germany has gone from a special case to a normal military. It used to be an outlier. Now it is still one of the more reluctant countries in Europe to deploy force, but it's no longer off the charts."