Western European Armed Forces and the Modernisation Agenda: Following or Falling Behind?

摘要

This article looks at the changing nature of European militaries specifically within the context of the United States's transformation agenda. The article looks at the key drivers of transformation in European militaries and asks the question to what degree has the American agenda impacted on the way Europe does defence. The article looks at three aspects of transformation across three case studies. The aspects are network enabledness, expeditionary forces and effects based operations. The analysis is applied to the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The findings suggest that local political and bureaucratic conditions have the potential to trump a larger process of force transformation led by the United States.