Just imagine if Kissinger were America's autocrat, you Euros would be toast!

Kissinger has yet to be outmaneuvered strategically. He is the most brilliant political realist on this earth.

By that time my Oceanic Union will have silenced Europe, BiefstukFriet. So your position will prove of little use.

The French were(are) the biggest dicks, yea.

Justinian, can you name something Kissinger did right? I mean some political development outside the US in the 1970s that stands as a model for how it oughta be done? 

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in my opinion. the United States are united because of the threat of foriegn powers forcing us to unite, namely GB. i dont see a threat that would be great enough for the EU to unite that wouldnt be great enough for the entire world or at least the majority of the world to unite.  there is just too much nationalism. big has its advantages and disadvantages. Bigger gives you more power, but less freedom. i would say that a EU becoming like a United States would be a dark day in history.

Yes,lets start Barbarossa II.

With China, the U.S, and a unified Korea being as strong as they all will be in 10 years, there will need to be a unified Europe just to keep up in terms of defense. Not to mention the growth of Russia, India, etc.

Both economically and in military these countries will *all* grow at an incredible rate.

Now, the thing that will scare the Europeans is that if two (or even three+) of these countries decide to fall into an arms race...Europe will be essentially vulnerable because it wont be able to keep up (unless it 'enters the race') -- even if those countries are considered 'friendly'.

Hahahaha. The US is culturally diverse. For example, it's a common theme in the Northeast for them to believe that we have dirt streets that cows stampede down here in the Midwest. To be honest, different regions think others are "weirdos." An especially targeted region for ridicule is the bible-belt south.

Ithaca, but isnt that in almost every country? In germany for example.. a rhinelander has really nothing in common with a bavarian. only thing we have in common with them may be religion. germany works anyways.. at least more or less.

Energy is a good quesation. We do not have much ressources in europe. So i think we have to work hard on becoming independant. means.. way more renewable energy sources. more funding of research for renewable energy sources. we have to make our huge car economy to somehow invest more into research of alternative energies.
We have to invest a lot into energy efficiency. most of the coal powerplants we have could be double as efficient if they would be renewed.
Did u guys see that solar tower they are building in spain or portugal? they look very promissing.
Sure we would have to do a lot of research and funding to make this possible.. but, i think it would be possible.

Schniepel:

In a way, these patterns repeat themselves in a smaller scale, yes. But these fractions of a nation (i.e. Germany) is not used to having their own independent nation, and as such, view themselves as German and the large scale.
If Germans, French, Italians, Danes, Brits etc. were to find common ground and give up their sovereignty... I just don't see it happening. There'd be way to much local-patriotism. You'd have rebellions and independence-rallies everywhere.

As for the US: It's true that the US is culturally diverse - But you have common ground and, for the most part, the same basic language. Your common ground is kicking out the English, and uniting for a "better purpose". Then came your civil war - You've had lots of common ground to bind you together as a people. Europeans have not. They have warred eachother, on the other hand.
The cultural background of Europeans are, on the account of entirely different nations, of a bigger diversity than the US will ever have.

Sitting Duck:

Duly noted - My bad. However, that correction is somewhat irrelevant to my point.

But how would you think these relatively new nations would feel about having to give up their sovereignty yet again?

> [TI] Sitting Duck wrote:

> Well I don't know what public opinion in the rest of Europe is but I know it would be strongly opposed in the UK. We are not even in the Euro . This is irrelevant to the posts I made earlier however. I said a united Europe would be a good thing, not that it is a thing likely to happen. Unfortunately I can think of very few occasions where public opinion has been correct or progressive.

I see your point - If a UE (United Europe) was plausible, it may be a good idea - There's too many uncertain parameters for one to be sure.

You'd never see us (Denmark) commit to it, however. We've got a lot of semi-nationalists over here ;-)