Well, I'm not sure how many are interested, but how important is national defence and military power? How much of a military is appropriate?
It's a dangerous world, and every nation needs to be able to defend itself, with the exception of some minature nations under the protection of larger ones.
However, sheer scale has decreased in importance, due to nuclear weapons and automation.
Are we seriously going to use those nuclear weapons, though? They are not going to be used in limited wars.
Threats still exist, and are growing, particularly terrorism and, in the medium term, SCO(Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) which is the Eastern equivalent of NATO, almost.
It seems that antagonism is growing, and a new arms race is beginning. The second half of the 20th century has been relatively peaceful, despite Cold War tensions.
However, those tensions seem to be returning, perhaps because of Eastern aspirations, a conflict of interest, not to mention that the US has developed a missile shield which lessens mutually assured destruction. The US could use it to defend against nukes, and not launch any back. Which means that there could be larger incidences of warfare.
The US has the world's most advanced, and most powerful military, but I think it would be wise for European nations to keep up. Our total military size is a trifle compared to that of Russia and China, and we need to be able to match that. 100,000 troops and several hundred combat aircraft and tanks aren't enough for the UK anymore, not if MAD is crumbling. Perhaps the EU should have its own standing military coalition. If major European militaries can all double the sizes of their armies and air forces, and have a few more ships(navies aren't so important for continental defence anymore), perhaps that will deter Russia away. We're leaving ourselves wide open here, and a few extra billion pounds on security won't hurt in the long run.
Terrorist threats are more immediate security issues. I doubt that deploying troops abroad will do much to solve that, especially when we're talking about decentralised terrorist networks.
Anyway, enough of my ramblings.
It's a dangerous world, and every nation needs to be able to defend itself, with the exception of some minature nations under the protection of larger ones.
However, sheer scale has decreased in importance, due to nuclear weapons and automation.
Are we seriously going to use those nuclear weapons, though? They are not going to be used in limited wars.
Threats still exist, and are growing, particularly terrorism and, in the medium term, SCO(Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) which is the Eastern equivalent of NATO, almost.
It seems that antagonism is growing, and a new arms race is beginning. The second half of the 20th century has been relatively peaceful, despite Cold War tensions.
However, those tensions seem to be returning, perhaps because of Eastern aspirations, a conflict of interest, not to mention that the US has developed a missile shield which lessens mutually assured destruction. The US could use it to defend against nukes, and not launch any back. Which means that there could be larger incidences of warfare.
The US has the world's most advanced, and most powerful military, but I think it would be wise for European nations to keep up. Our total military size is a trifle compared to that of Russia and China, and we need to be able to match that. 100,000 troops and several hundred combat aircraft and tanks aren't enough for the UK anymore, not if MAD is crumbling. Perhaps the EU should have its own standing military coalition. If major European militaries can all double the sizes of their armies and air forces, and have a few more ships(navies aren't so important for continental defence anymore), perhaps that will deter Russia away. We're leaving ourselves wide open here, and a few extra billion pounds on security won't hurt in the long run.
Terrorist threats are more immediate security issues. I doubt that deploying troops abroad will do much to solve that, especially when we're talking about decentralised terrorist networks.
Anyway, enough of my ramblings.