Clément Renaud

Emmanuel Macron has called for creation of a 'true European army' do you agree? Why or why not?


To share a common army requires a common strategy, which does not exist in Europe.

Think about it : who will lead this army ? What/who will this army protect? Under which conditions? The Greek army is one of the most critical piece of European defence.Are they going to die for the Germans? What is in for them? Also where is Europe willing to project power exactly?

Macron wants to sell weapons to boost France economy, so he is suggesting using the EU as a client. France is 3rd weapon exporter in the world and wants to keep growing. Macron wants to expand the market and is learning from the US that big federal state can pay for big army.

The failure of having a common defence strategy in Europe is the exact reflection of what is wrong with the EU. Every government have been using Europe for their own ends, to the extent that those idiots have managed to turn the population against the concept of Europe itself.

Schuman, one of the founder of the EU after WW2, said once that he didn’t want to just stop wars between European countries, but to make it unthinkable for next generations of Europeans to fight each others. In many regards, his plan has succeeded. For my generation (I am 30-ish French), war between Europeans still seem unthinkable today. Things like free travel, work and study have succeeded in building more understanding between the many cultures of Europe.

The problem is while the population have tried to shift mind, the governments and institutions haven’t followed. They haven’t even try. The political reorganisation of Europe never happened. No European leaders, no European parti, no major European infrastructure building, etc. Only a vast array of bureaucrats obsessed with trade and piling up money for their “countries” - i.e. for themselves.

Macron keep dreaming some “grand dessein” where he is the chosen one who will lead France and Europe into a new era. Cold fact : the actual extent of its power amounts to nothing. He doesn’t even have a proper parti to help him stay in power. In 3 years, an election in France, and he is out. How will he pursue his great projects then? He will just go back to consulting and make himself some good money, that’s it.

The ship Macron wants to ride has sailed decades ago. There were no political courage back then, there is even less today. Just more resentment in the EU because of the constant humiliation of the population by its leaders. Today, it translates into far-right being elected all around the place because sadly that is the only alternative project left.

A military buildup without a political project is one of the worst idea possible. Building an army for economical reasons will ruin the countries and provide weapons to kill each other, or some other victim countries as Robin Daverman said below. What Europe need is not an army, it is a vision for the future that does not come out of the mind of some retired landlord obsessed by the 19th century and the 1930s.

This text was originally published in quora.