There’s still that little issue of building up your own. Most EU countries have been demilitarizing for 30 years more and more, with the strategy being “it’s a new world without wars, and also big daddy USA will protect us, and if not them, then Britain and France will”. Britain has done an exit, and France alone is kinda lazy.
Most EU countries have been demilitarizing for 30 years more and more, with the strategy being "it’s a new world without wars, and also big daddy USA will protect us,l
That’s not the Europe I see now and sounds like a US President trope. I would agree that post-Cold War that was the case, but I’d say in the last decade at least, it’s not.
But, genuine question as I’m open to being wrong, saved this is an area that interests me, do you have sources for this?
Yeah, the person above isn’t being accurate at all.
While here in the UK we rely heavily on the US for control of Trident, the US dropping NATO support would just require additional defence spending and closer alignment with Europe. If Trump is bought by Russia, Putin would see this as a Very Bad Thing, and would want to keep the US in the fold because even with the US NATO would likely steamroll Russia.
The Trump dynamic is somewhat problematic, should it fester elsewhere in Europe. Globalisation was an important trait to maintain for the US, whereas most populist movements move towards buying local or supporting national interests above all else. Europe is largely self-sufficient, even in defence, so Trump would probably cut off huge numbers of imports/exports just to prop up Elon’s shitty cars.
Putin has been working to dismantle NATO for a long time though. Whether he is right or wrong, he clearly feels that the US pulling out of NATO is in his interest.
the british military slashed budgets considerably after 2008. we’ve maintained special forces and we decomissioned our last carrier before its replacement was ready. we’re back up to 2 carriers now but dont have enough planes to put on them.
we have virtually no stockpiles of artillery and our land forces are small.
There’s still that little issue of building up your own. Most EU countries have been demilitarizing for 30 years more and more, with the strategy being “it’s a new world without wars, and also big daddy USA will protect us, and if not them, then Britain and France will”. Britain has done an exit, and France alone is kinda lazy.
That’s not the Europe I see now and sounds like a US President trope. I would agree that post-Cold War that was the case, but I’d say in the last decade at least, it’s not.
But, genuine question as I’m open to being wrong, saved this is an area that interests me, do you have sources for this?
Yeah, the person above isn’t being accurate at all.
While here in the UK we rely heavily on the US for control of Trident, the US dropping NATO support would just require additional defence spending and closer alignment with Europe. If Trump is bought by Russia, Putin would see this as a Very Bad Thing, and would want to keep the US in the fold because even with the US NATO would likely steamroll Russia.
The Trump dynamic is somewhat problematic, should it fester elsewhere in Europe. Globalisation was an important trait to maintain for the US, whereas most populist movements move towards buying local or supporting national interests above all else. Europe is largely self-sufficient, even in defence, so Trump would probably cut off huge numbers of imports/exports just to prop up Elon’s shitty cars.
Putin has been working to dismantle NATO for a long time though. Whether he is right or wrong, he clearly feels that the US pulling out of NATO is in his interest.
the british military slashed budgets considerably after 2008. we’ve maintained special forces and we decomissioned our last carrier before its replacement was ready. we’re back up to 2 carriers now but dont have enough planes to put on them.
we have virtually no stockpiles of artillery and our land forces are small.
From an entirely selfish perspective, the UK has very few threats militarily, unless the French decide to invade again.
Russia have demonstrated the ability to carry out chemical weapons attacks on mainland UK soil.
if a full on exchange we would be out of air defence ammunition very quickly.
The Skripal thing? No amount of tanks or missiles can stop espionage.
Nah. It’s a trope all right.
“For 20 years” is fine.
Britain has in no way done an exit. Going out of a trade and economic union has nothing to do with their military commitments.
To defense as part of NATO - yes.