The
Frankfurter Rundschau
writes about
our word count of the Obama-Romney foreign policy debate last
night and what it means that Europe got nary a mention.  The
paper points to the fact as a teachable moment for Europe:

Omitting Europe is also the result of the current
peacefulness in Europe. And wars at other parts of the world demand
the public attention. We Europeans are not so many and we are also
not so important as we (sometimes) like to think. A TV-debate of
this kind is good for teaching us modesty.

Nevertheless it shouldn’t be so the Rundschau
argues:

Despite this, both candidates err when they ignore
Europe. For two reasons: On the one side, there is still the
Euro-crisis, a threat for the whole world like the conflicts in the
Middle East. On the other side, the USA will need Europe’s support
more urgently when the US wants to be successful in foreign- and
security policy.

Still, the connection between the Americans and the Europeans are
by far closer than to all the other regions in the world –
historically, economical and regarding the “Weltanschauung”
(philosophically, world outlook). The rise of China means, that the
USA could really need like-minded allies in the international
arena, the United Nations and elsewhere.

The only reference to the European Union last night, by the way,
came from Mitt Romney, who said he assumed the EU would go along
with tightening sanctions on Iran as he proposed.

The Rundschau also acknowledges the reality of
America’s limited financial resources, something Obama and Romney
paid lip service to but
did not treat as a reality. The paper even notes the next
president, as I
but neither candidate did last night, should shift some of the
perceived burden of interventionism onto Europe:

And then there is the scarcity of money, which will
brutally limit the room for maneuver of the next US president.
Sure, Europe – as a result of the Euro crisis – found itself also
in the mire of debt. Nevertheless, the next US president has to try
to convince Europeans to take up more international responsibility.
It is really sad, that Obama and Romney did not loose a word about
it.

Other international reactions to the presidential debate via

Reason 24/7.

Translation thanks to Wolfgang Müller