Their Own Army?

This article discusses plans by the European Union to create a credible unified military force. At a December 1999 summit in Helsinki, Finland, the leaders of the European Union (EU) announced their intention to create a rapid reaction force able to act autonomously, send up to 60,000 troops abroad within two months, and sustain them for at least a year. Apart from the hoopla surrounding it, this latest initiative seems more serious than its predecessors. If done right, the development of a serious EU defense force could be a good thing for all concerned reducing American burdens in Europe, making Europe a better and more capable partner, and providing a way for Europeans to tackle security problems where and when the United States cannot or will not get involved. If done badly, however, the EU project risks irrelevance as an empty institutional distraction--or even worse, a step back toward the situation in the Balkans in the early 1990s, when separate European and American strategies and institutions led to impotence and recrimination.