UK, France Sign Treaties on Military Cooperation

While the US focuses on its mid-term elections, two of its allies have undertaken a radical revamping of Western Europe's defenses. Today, Britain and France signed two treaties that effectively change the way the two powers operate their militaries. The two have agreed to create a joint expeditionary force of about 5,000, ensure that at least one of their common aircraft carriers is at sea at all times and jointly undertake virtual nuclear tests. These developments are the result of unpleasant economic realities colliding with national ambition.

After a millennium of hostility, the British and the French stopped fighting one another in 1815. During the Crimean War in the 1850s, they actually started fighting a common enemy. That collaboration suffered a bit of a blow when the British bombed the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir in July 1940, but by Suez in 1956, they were on the same side again. With the French back in NATO's unified command (after Charles de Gaulle took France out of it), it seemed obvious that the two would wind up working closely on matters military.

National pride, however, ensured that such cooperation would have rigid boundaries and that each would possess its own command structure, order of battle and nuclear deterrent. At least, until the money ran out as it did in the last several months. Now like two medium-sized grocery chains struggling to maintain a national presence, the UK and France are in a strategic alliance to remain global players in the use of force. That both have roughly the same amount of military might helps ensure that it is an equal partnership with each seeking to achieve together that which neither can afford alone.

President Sarkozy and Prime Minister Cameron are making military lemonade out of the economic lemons fate and years of bad policy have provided them. There remains some concern that the two still have national interests too distinct to allow for these treaties to really work. They were at pains to say otherwise. Mr. Sarkozy tried to reassure the UK saying "If you, my British friends, have to face a major crisis, could you imagine France simply sitting there, its arms crossed, saying that it's none of our business?" Well, let Argentina invade the Falklands again, and the answer will be known in 72 hours.

The day when French soldiers bunk with British troops under a common command is still a long way off. However, French defense analyst Bruno Carre said it best when he told the BBC's Sam Wilson, the French "are on the verge of becoming a second-rank power on the world stage. The only way we can remain a medium-first-rank power is by increasing relations with our best allies." A medium-first-rank power sounds rather like a light heavyweight boxer, but the point is valid.

The real import of these agreements, though, may be that a truly independent European strategy and defense policy is now doomed. Because of the UK's special relationship with the US (frayed but not torn), it appears that the French have just become a bit less independent; this arrangement carries more of an Atlanticist scent than a continental one. So while America tries to decide whether or not to elect someone who pointed out in her TV commercials that she is "not a witch," a realignment of power among its strongest military allies has occurred. And it won't be on the evening news tonight.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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