Oz and Poland - Jacob

Oz and Poland - Jacob Levy on why Australia and Poland have joined us in Iraq, but the Europeans don't:

There is, perhaps, something to be said for a modified version of Robert Kagan's "Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus" explanation. This argument begins with the fact that Western Europe, Canada, and New Zealand all inhabit zones of peace. Since they face no credible military threat, or at least no threat that wouldn't first strike a vastly more powerful neighbor (the United States for Canada, Australia for New Zealand) these countries allow their military capabilities to atrophy, which, according to Kagan, encourages a certain willful blindness to threats to the world order. If that's the case, one could easily reverse Kagan's normative thrust, saying that states that do feel compelled to maintain their armed forces become trigger-happy, too ready to go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. In either event, a state's security needs drive its military capabilities, which in turn drive its reactions to the world...

...Notice, too, the similarity to Poland, another medium-sized power in a dangerous neighborhood, and the only other country fighting alongside the United States and Britain.

The whole article is great, of course - as usual, read it.

Posted by Mitch at March 27, 2003 04:09 AM