FRANCE's STRATEGY

By George Friedman

.........Two events shaped modern French strategy. The first, of course, was the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 and the emergence of Britain as the world's dominant naval power and Europe's leading imperial power. This did not eliminate French naval or imperial power, but it profoundly constrained it. France could not afford to challenge Britain any more and had to find a basis for accommodation, ending several centuries of hostility if not distrust.
The second moment came in 1871 when the Prussians defeated France and presided over the unification of German states. After its defeat, France had to accept not only a loss of territory to Germany but also the presence of a substantial, united power on its eastern frontier. From that moment, France's strategic problem was the existence of a unified Germany..............

Read more: France's Strategy | Stratfor

NATO's Ordinary Future (by Robert D. Kaplan of STRATFOR)

... The strength of a country's military ultimately rests on the health of the civil-military relationship within its society. In the United States, there is much debate as well as tension regarding the proper role of a military in a democratic society. But through it all, Americans are deeply proud of their armed forces, even during wars that have become quagmires. For the most part, that is not the case in Western Europe, where the soldiers' profession is quietly looked down upon. (The United Kingdom, France and Denmark are among the exceptions.) Europeans tend to see their own armed forces members as civil servants in funny uniforms. The idea that it is the military that defends their democratic freedoms is something many Europeans find laughable...

Read more: NATO's Ordinary Future By Robert D. Kaplan | Stratfor

Europe without defense

The States of Europe Have to Re-evaluate the Interrelationship Between Political Sovereignty, Military Effectiveness and Economic Efficience

NATO's operation in Libya has revealed significant deficiencies in European defense. It is not only that Europe's defense capability is chronically underdeveloped and the US' support is dwindling. The resources that would allow European states to deal with these deficits are likewise shrinking dramatically. If Europe does not halt the rapid depletion of its defense resources, or so this commentary argues, both the structure of its armed forces and its defense industry base will be turned upside down.... ( more)

Britain's Strategy (as copied from STRATFOR)

By George Friedman
Britain controlled about one-fourth of the Earth's land surface and one-fifth of the world's population in 1939. Fifty years later, its holdings outside the British Isles had become trivial, and it even faced an insurgency in Northern Ireland.
Britain spent the intervening years developing strategies to cope with what poet Rudyard Kipling called its "recessional," or the transient nature of Britain's imperial power. It has spent the last 20 years defining its place not in the world in general but between continental Europe and the United States in particular.

Read more: Britain's Strategy | Stratfor