Another question I posted in last week’s article is whether the European Union possesses a military capable of Middle East conquest now.
- The question is important to consider because there are some people who believe the Antichrist will emerge from Europe and/or utilize European forces in a war of conquest in the Middle East.
- If the European Union does not possess a military ready for Middle East conquest then the start of the End Times may be delayed at least until the time when it finally possesses one.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) monitors the military capabilities of more than 170 countries around the world. One of the items the IISS monitors is the troop levels of each country it tracks.
- I aggregated the troop level data for each European Union member country to come up with a size estimate of a hypothetical European Army. If we combined the forces of the 27 current members of the European Union, there would be a military of 1,897,013 active troops, 2,610,953 troops in reserve, and 535,199 paramilitary troops, or a combined 5,043,165 total troops.[1] This combined force would be one of the top ten militaries by troop size in the world…
Although this European force is a formidable one, it is highly unlikely that a European leader could mobilize all of Europe’s military assets for a war of conquest in the Middle East right now since each country possesses control over their respective armed forces.
- Let’s say a European leader wanted to invade and conquer Iran. It’s highly unlikely that 27 different European countries would agree to contribute their military forces for an invasion of Iran. The best a European leader could probably accomplish right now is to form a collation of the willing.
The European Union-as a political entity-possesses a relatively small number of troops that it controls. Here are the main forces that the European Union-the political entity-controls:
- Eurocorps: A force of 60,000 troops comprised from several Western European countries.
- E.U. Battle Groups: Rapid reaction, expeditionary forces consisting of 1500 troops, on average, in each unit. There are reportedly 13 E.U. Battle Groups that have been formed so far. There role is to aid in humanitarian, peacekeeping, and peacemaking.
- Eurofor: A rapid reaction force that performs humanitarian, peacekeeping, military advising, and peacemaking missions. Later this year Eurofor will serve as an E.U. Battle Group.
Together, these forces provide the European Union with some ability to react to humanitarian crises and other type of international crises fairly quickly, but not with the ability to conquer the Middle East.
The European Union would most likely need to form a European Army of its own to provide a potential, future leader with the ability to conquer the Middle East since it is too difficult and time-consuming to convince each member of the European Union to agree to provide their individual military assets for a war of conquest.
- European leaders have been working on creating the framework to form a European Army recently. In 2009 the European Parliament approved Synchronized Armed Forces Europe (SAFE), which is a concept that is planned to eventually lead to a synchronization of national armed forces of Europe. European leaders in favor of SAFE see the synchronization of Europe’s national armed forces as a significant, first step to accomplishing the “objective of a European army". There are not many details on SAFE available since European leaders are still figuring out how to implement this concept…
- Economic considerations may also serve as a catalyst to help unify the national armed forces of Europe. European countries can achieve significant cost savings when they pool together/share their military assets. For instance, British Prime Minister David Cameron cited the savings of several million British Pounds as one of the motivating factors behind last year’s Britain and France’s military cooperation agreement (where they agreed to share military assets like aircraft carriers with each other).
In sum, the European Union-as a political entity-does not yet have a military ready to conquer the Middle East. At the moment, it would be very difficult for a leader to mobilize all the military assets of Europe for a war of Middle East conquest since the member countries have control over whether their forces can be used or not. In addition, the military forces that the European Union does have under its control are primarily equipped to deal with humanitarian and other type of international crises.
The European Union is likely going to need time to form a European Army from the various national armed forces of Europe. The process to create a European Army is underway, but you’re unlikely going to see the creation of a European Army overnight as this process will require some time.
Reference
[1] Source: Hackett, James (ed.) The Military Balance 2010 London: Routledge, 2010
