This week I read the article by Polyakova and Haddad.

This week I read the article by Polyakova and Haddad. Before reading this article I was unaware of this situation. As I was reading I was wondering why some of this issues were not discussed in history classes like in high school. I think it is important for Europe to build on their own defense instead of sitting back. If they do not it will in the long run harm them. They eventually will have to so why not sooner rather than later.

and him : Martin Stavro

I found the Polyakova and Haddad article to be striking and compelling. Although I did not write a paper on it, I find the advocation for an autonomous Europe spearheaded by EU leaders to be a very interesting prospect that could pan out to be quite successful, through the coordination of foreign and within EU policies as well as establishing hard force to supplement the EU’s soft normative force. While the Eurocorps somewhat resemble this, they certainly have not reached the magnitude this article is advocating for. My impression upon reading this article was being rather swayed by the argument; perhaps it would be a good idea to augment the EU with its own hard force capabilities to deal with proximal issues, rather than being merely a theater as the authors state. It seems that military integration would be a logical and significant next step in the journey of EU integration.