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WWII was pretty compelling evidence of why Britain needed a global empire, but nonetheless the empire was dissolved. There is a pretty good argument here for a
by roenxi 1y ago
WWII was pretty compelling evidence of why Britain needed a global empire, but nonetheless the empire was dissolved.
There is a pretty good argument here for at a minimum reforming NATO. Some major points include that the US appears to be bluffing about having useful support to offer Eastern Europe through the NATO structure, also appears to have different defence priorities than Europe does, NATO itself failed to preserve peace and Europe looks like it has militarily atrophied to a pretty significant extent under NATO.
It is not clear how the situation will ultimately be interpreted, but the US's involvement here is pushing Europe towards being the next middle east. That isn't a great outcome.
- tim333 1y agoWhy did Britain need a global empire? I sit here in Britain with no global empire and things seem to continue.
- roenxi 1y agoExactly. Very similar situation to NATO - there isn't any evidence it needs to exist. The premise depends on an assumption that the status quo is necessary, when in fact it is not.
- ben_w 1y agoThe Empire ended because WW2 was a Pyrrhic victory for the UK, that left the UK in a bad shape economically and heavily dependent on the USA. The USA didn't like the Empire, but the UK government didn't fully realise how much things had changed until the Suez Crisis. Also, WW2 happened despite the Empire, and the UK wasn't really in a good place to fight it when they did — as in "we don't have enough guns and uniforms for everyone" not ready, despite having ended the military cutbacks 5 years before the war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_rearmament_before_World_War_II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_rearmament_before_Worl..., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Small_Arms_Company#Second_World_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Small_Arms_Company#..., https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/8-facts-about-clothes-rationing-in-britain-during-the-second-world-war https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/8-facts-about-clothes-rationi...