ESDP (the European Security and Defence Policy), agreed upon at St. Malo ten years ago, and the EU’s own defence force demonstrate the fact that the European Union has become a military and strategic player of growing importance in world affairs. Although the EU defence establishment is being regularly criticised by its American counterpart for refusing to invest more in replacing obsolete military hardware, this situation is likely to change significantly in the next decade.

As current developments indicate, it is entirely possible that Asian nations too will endeavour to create in the not-too-distant future a military and strategic alliance of their own, to complement their economic integration plans.For the last ten years, China has proceeded with the modernisation of its armed forces and is in the process of building a blue water navy. South Korea and Taiwan, on the other hand, have sizeable, very well-equipped armies. The military integration of Asian nations is less improbable than we might now think. When this happens, NATO as the world’s foremost military alliance will effectively have to be replaced with structures capable of accommodating two other up-and-coming military alliances : Europe’s and Asia’s.

Viewed in this light, France’s latest moves to reintegrate into NATO’s military structures could prove, if not downright detrimental to ESDP, rather lacking in strategic vision. EU strategic planners, after all, should spend most of the time thinking of how to improve the new European force’s military capabilities and the co-ordination between its various national components, and not on reforming NATO. 

To complement these efforts, European political leaders would do well to concentrate on framing a well-defined common EU foreign policy rather than on selecting this or that person for the top job. When this will happen, Asian policymakers and analysts will take Europe more seriously than it is the case right now.