EU v NATO or instead of NATO
Okay, so I hope I this will not get me banned, but I am going to follow the advice I was given by Andy/MOBHACK and discuss this here from a game/military point of view. Please bear in mind that as Clausewitz said "war is the continuation of politics by other means", so you cannot totally segregate them...
As everyone probably knows France has been a very lukewarm NATO member for a very long time. Now some people within the European Union want it to become a State. States have to have military forces. Outside of that idea I cannot for the life of me see why there should be Anglo-French or any other 'EU' military force, given that we have Nato for joint and allied operations that are important to Western Europe, etc, and that NATO gives the huge added strength of the US (and also Canada).
In general terms the British military, unlike a few British political types, do not regard unilateral Anglo-French cooperation all that warmly. In particular there is a very deep seated dislike, that goes to the very highest ranks, of putting British forces under French Command. After all a two battalion Anglo-French force with a squadron of Tanks is something that UK, or France, could easily do on their own, and it would almost certainly work better than a joint force with all the problems of lingo, etc.
Now in June Britain is having a referendum to decide to stay in or leave the EU (it is about 50%/50% at the moment although the evidence is that leaving is much more popular - 85%/15%- with the military and former military).
So here is my idea for two scenarios: Firstly the EU goes full ahead for a EU military, the US accelerates its move of the centre of gravity of its forces from Europe to the Pacific, and so the EU faces the Russians basically minus the US (and Canada) ie, at about, at best, 25% of current NATO forces.
The other scenario would be UK leaves the EU, but the EU continues to push the Russians, as it has been doing for some time and a highly alarmed USA, UK and, perhaps, Canada decide this dangerous nonsense must stop and so France, Germany and whatever other EU nations they can browbeat into foolishly supporting them face US and UK forces, possibly supported by Canada. Meanwhile off on the sidelines Russia, and indeed China, look on with great interest.
I hope this has given scenario designers some totally fresh ideas for campaigns.
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