I’m in Vienna for a project on European security, drivers, and trends. You can read about Foresec’s aims and objectives here. One of the more animated discussions we had last night was on Europe’s military ambitions and whether Sarkozy’s current rhetoric would translate into some realistic goals. As one Brit said – would Sarkozy’s ideas be accepted by Ministers and mandarins in ‘blanchall’ (Whitehall)?
We needn’t fret too much. The diminutive President has an ally in the shape of the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband. In a speech today he will say:
“What strikes me about the French priorities for their presidency is how closely they tie with our own ambitions for the EU, as set out in our global Europe policy statement last autumn whether on energy and climate change, migration, near neighbourhood policy and the next steps on European defence.”
Not very exciting – but the next bit of his speech is much better.
As the Balkans wars in the 1990s demonstrated, unless Europe can develop its own capabilities, it will be consigned always to wait impotently until the US and Nato are ready and able to intervene. That means a genuine role for the EU in conflict prevention and crisis management whether it is providing the civilian experts – the police trainers, judges, civil servants and aid workers – that are needed alongside the military, or deploying soldiers from national armies in roles where Nato is not engaged… the countries of Europe need to be better at using their hard power.
To seasoned watchers of European defence, many with sceptic printed across their foreheads (let’s hope the tattooist in question remembered both c’s), the ideas behind Anglo-French agreements on defence issues have always been pretty solid but have tended to fizzle out with the slightest whiff of realpolitik. Will it be any different this time. Let’s hope not . Sarkozy is on to something.
