10 May 2007, Garwood Lecture Theatre, South Wing, University College London
Speaker: Lord Roper, Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the House of Lords until May 2005 and Professorial Fellow at the Institute for German Studies of the University of Birmingham.
The twenty first century has begun with rather more European countries using military force than might have been expected at the end of the Cold War. In most cases these forces have operated as part of a NATO or an EU operation: the exception being the operation from 2003 in Iraq.
NATO was not designed for wars of choice and, as has been apparent in Afghanistan, different member states take different views as to how their forces should be deployed. The European Union has tried to combine military means with police and civilian peace building activities. In both cases there have been difficulties in generating adequate forces for the varied tasks. What lessons can be learned from these developments?