THE MIGHTY MORPHIN’ TEUTONIC RANGERS: I was scrolling through the coming attractions for the next “on dead tree” issue of National Review, and saw this blurb about an article by John O’Sullivan:
It may be comforting to argue that “the Europeans” will never develop into a major military threat because of their pacific nature. But until 1870 the Germans were mainly Ruritanians, until 1919 Prussians, until 1933 decadents, until 1945 Nazis, until 1970 Americans, until 1989 neutralists, and since then good Europeans on the Robert Kagan model. We cannot be sure that they and other Europeans will not someday undergo a personality change into a conventional superpower with its own interests and instruments to enforce them. Indeed, a “realist” analysis predicts that a united European state would have little choice but to become a military power. And as the four years of U.S. history after Pearl Harbor demonstrate, a wealthy and technically advanced power can become a military superpower in half a decade.
Talk about a blinding flash of the obvious–I had forgotten for a moment how all-over-the-board Germanic policy was in the 20th century.
For a slightly different take on the issue of a militaristic Europe, check out this post by Steve Den Beste.
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