Berlin offers to build tsunami warning system for Asia

The EU Observer reports that "Germany has offered to play a leading role in improving international early warning systems." However, the US also has a plan based on the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. One the one hand, the Germans and Americans probably have equivalent theoretical and academic knowledge of the issue, but the Americans have the experience in running the PTWC, so the edge would go to the Americans, who were on the heels of the recent tsunami. As we know, people tend to make these kinds of choices based as much on politics as based on the practicalities, and a world wide American catastrophe system is bound to rub some people the wrong way. Never mind that the Americans, as a continental power have interests from hurricane detection off Africa to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, and thus are already watching half of the globe for one kind of disaster or another. India is taking a keen interest in, "an early warning system to prevent disasters like the recent Asian tsunamis," according to the EU Observer. The final decision about who and how an Indian Ocean disaster setup works may well depend disproportionatly on India.