Today Europe, Tomorrow the “Grand Area”

Cambridge scholar James Rogers actually presents a fairly well reasoned notion of what the EU’s outward projection of influence could be... if you assume that all Indians leaders for the next century willfully decide to not act in their self-interest, and assume that the Chinese are a nation of deferential, unarmed Coolees.

I argue that the time has come for a new geography of European power, which should be based around a sophisticated ‘forward presence’ that emphasises the preventative dimension of military power. As I point out, this would allow the European Union and its Member States to overcome the sporadic and reactive approach they have taken to security since the foundation of the European Security and Defence Policy in the late 1990s. It will also provision them with the means to uphold their interests and values in an uncertain world over the coming decades.

That is, assuming that the population will get out of bed for it, be willing to bleed for it, and actually have a doctrine that involve individual human freedom.

I mean, could they think of something that DOESN’T involve trying to convince poor people to deny themselves of affordable energy, or that doesn’t promote welfare dependency and crony socialism?

The other flaw in the theory, is that short of others ‘granting them’ the influence they seek, they will do nothing to command or deserve it.