Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

the rise of europe

Dharmavidya | 26.11.2004 14:35 | Analysis | Anti-militarism

Blair and Chirac



2004 November 22nd... Blair Chirac and the rise of Europe


You might think that Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac have little in common when it comes to world politics. You would be wrong, however. What they share is the ambition to have Europe displace the USA as the number one superpower. They have different ways of going about it sometimes, but in the larger game it actually suits their purpose for them to appear to be divided. While they look divided, Europe looks weak, so the US does not get too worried. However, for my money, the most significant piece of news today is not what is happening in Iraq or in Israel-Palestine, but the fact that European Union defence ministers will today sign plans for battlegroups of troops poised for instant action, in a significant move towards a European army. Note that this plan is the result of an Anglo-French initiative and the first two 1,500-strong expeditionary forces, starting in January, will be provided by the British and the French. This is co-operation at the point where politics becomes all too real and at that point, Blair and Chirac are at one. Europe has growing economic power and military power will follow as sure as day follows night. America is number one militarily at the moment, but its economic position is fragile. The dollar has fallen as never before in my lifetime and looks lame beside the euro. Anthoer significant snippet not in the headlines is the fact that on 2nd December European forces will replace NATO in Bosnia. For NATO, you can usually read "US controlled". This represents a significant shift. We can expect to see more and more of this sort of shift over the next few years as Europe starts to test its strength and, little by little, to ease the US out of areas that the Europeans regard as their own domain. There is a big game going on that cannot be made public. There is no way that any British government could possibly say that we are in Iraq to protect our interests against the US. We have to pretend to be their best friends. I am not, however, at all surprised that British troops have taken over a few of the duties previously managed by the US west of Baghdad and I would not be surprised to see more of this in the future. The US is becoming over-stretched and eventually there will be increasing calls for the US to pull out. It is not unthinkable that the British will still be there after they have gone. And then, of course, Europe might take a renewed interest too. This is all part of the grand game, but, at the moment, it is, perforce, a game of stealth. Everybody talks about China, but Europe is now a bigger home market than the US and Europe is the only world power that has the kind of sophistication of technology to rival the US. Watch this space.


Dharmavidya

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech