European Foreign Legion

From what I know, Europe currently does not possess a single military institution. It has a forum for multiple national armies to cooperate and standardize, but not truly single army.

However, what if Europe adopted a system akin to the French Foreign Legion: an army of volunteers composed from both EU and non-EU nationals that is controlled by the elected officials of the EU?

When is the most likely time for this force to be implemented? What affects would it have based on when it is created? Would such a force, due to interactions between soldiers of many nations, make Pan-European nationalism a much more popular ideology?
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Why have a EU Foreign Legion when the CSDP, CFSP, and NATO already function as such? What purpose would a 'Foreign Legion' serve that these organisations already don't?

Short answer is that a 'Foreign Legion' is not going to happen, given how the EU already a Military... thing that has 200 Billion Euro's sunk into it. A FL serves no purpose, and if left to the Bureaucracy, will further serve no purpose and only exemplify the uselessness of it. They would be used as the French Foreign Legion is today, shock troops and rounders against any militarily threat towards the EU itself.
 
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Considering the political fractures in the EU right now and the fact that the first (or second) largest military in Europe is considering pulling out of the EU altogether, I don't see any sort of pooling of military forces into one supranational group as being likely anytime soon.

Also the fact that their are so many languages used in the EU countries would make this a difficult proposition. For an army unit to be effectively administrated there has to be a single lingua franca used for everything from in-house communication to clerical work. Sometimes you can bend this a bit (eg. Bilingualism in the Canadian Forces- Senior officers must be ables to speak English and French but junior officers and enlisted personnel do not which means most army units end up being mainly non-lingual French or English with their commanders being bilingual). The French Foreign Legion uses French as a common language because it is a French force. What language would this "European Legion" use? Ultimately they would have to pick 1 language to use functionally. They couldn't even do a Canadian model where only the senior officers have to be multilingual because their are 24 official languages! Trying to select 1 language (likely English because of the established NATO military architecture) as the EU military standard would be a non-starter because none of the other countries that do speak, particularly the major ones (Germany and France) would be willing to buy into this program because it would effectively privilege 1 language (that isn't their own) above the rest (including their own).
 
However, what if Europe adopted a system akin to the French Foreign Legion: an army of volunteers composed from both EU and non-EU nationals that is controlled by the elected officials of the EU?
Have you seen how difficult the EU members find it to agree upon a common foreign policy on things? Trying to agree a common policy on the use of military force would be a hundred times worse - either it would require unanimity in which case they'd end up only ever sitting around in their barracks or if it was qualified majority voting then countries are going to get angry at their being deployed on missions which they don't agree with and on the national level oppose yet still have to help fund. Even just keeping them as a purely defensive force is going to be tricky considering the differences of opinion in the current debate on whether NATO should station troops in the Baltic and Eastern Europe states as a deterrent towards Russia or not.

Now I could certainly see the EU bureaucrats and the true believers in ever closer union pushing for a common military formation to help drive forward EU integration politically just like with the common foreign and security policy or the euro, but as with them it would end up being a compromise job and likely highly flawed.
 
Not strictly an EU force, pre-NATO the idea of a European Defence Force were touted as most expected the US to gradually pull out of the continent. And an idea that came up when the issue of West German troops was raised in 1949 was to have Germans serve in units directly controlled by NATO command, without influence from Bonn. General Ismay was apparently a fan of the idea.

In a situation where the EDF is established, say America limits its commitment in Europe to only atomic weapons, the worry of German militarism would be even more pronounced. So Ismay and others put forward the concept of a Eurokorps with German soldiers but commanded by British and French senior officers, with bilingualism where needed. As the Cold War continues, colonialism ends and European integration heats up, you could see the Eurokorps in effect become the border guard of the West but also the kernel for a European army, expanding to include many nationalities but with English and French the language at senior levels.
 

Devvy

Donor
To echo others; what would a European Foreign Legion do? Creating a coherent foreign policy outlook in Europe is horrendously difficult.

The UK and France are generally aligned, as they have global outlooks and presence, and wish to continue so.
Sweden and Finland wish to remain neutral, without being tied in to European foreign policy and militaries.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania all look with nervousness at Russia, and wish to remain strong in the face of Russia considering it's outlook on Ukraine.
Germany, Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary all want to be a bit softer on Russia, as energy imports from Russia make it a valuable trading partner.
Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece want to focus on North Africa and Turkey to stem the large numbers of refugees flocking to Europe.

Points if you can manage making anything coherent from that.
 
Points if you can manage making anything coherent from that.
Points? If you can square that circle I'm fairly sure the Berlaymonsters would hoist you up on their shoulders, parade you around Brussels, and then declare you King of Europe. :)
 
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