The continued presence of European troops in Afghanistan, and the hope of a few more, demonstrates how Europe's apathy can be worked around. Washington can still pressure governments to lead their populations rather than merely follow their wishes. And it can be pointed out that combat, which is what European publics are specifically averse to, constitutes only a small part of the military activity we are likely to see in the 21st century. True, warfare will always be about killing, but militaries will be used in more and more ingenious ways. Counterinsurgency, in and of itself, while it requires monopolizing the use of force in any given space, is often about avoiding manhunts and concentrating on rural development projects, as well as the training of indigenous forces. There is much work in Afghanistan that European troops can theoretically perform without alienating citizenries back home who are conflicted about the use of force -- more so now that counterinsurgency will be emphasized over counter-terrorism.

The way the world is shaping up, America will have no choice but to yank Europe kicking and screaming into conflict zones, even as America will have to learn to live with all of the restrictions that come with European forces. Consider: China is rising as a great power, particularly in the naval sphere. The U.S. will not fight a war with China, but it will leverage like-minded, democratic others such as India, Indonesia, Australia, South Korea, and Japan to help manage Chinese ascendancy in the maritime rimland of Eurasia. This will take a lot of work, and a lot of ships. And with the U.S. increasingly tied up in the Indian and Pacific oceans as the years and decades march on, it will help to rely increasingly on European forces to cover the the Atlantic and Africa for them. Imagine a state collapse in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, and then think how a neopacifist Europe could still help with humanitarian assistance, relieving the U.S. of some of the burden.

In fact, if one is looking for a way in which a debellicized Europe can make a difference, it is in the naval sphere. European countries such as Holland, Norway, Germany, and Spain have, in fact, been investing over the years in various kinds of warships. Since Europe increasingly seeks to avoid conflict and geopolitics altogether, an emphasis on sea power makes sense. Sea power is inherently less threatening than land power. It is the limited capacity of navies to extend force inland that makes sea power no threat to liberty, wrote Alfred Thayer Mahan in 1900. Sea power allows for sizable military missions with a small on-shore footprint. And because of the slow rate at which ships travel, sea power enables more diplomacy than is possible with lightning quick air maneuvers and airborne insertions of ground forces. Sea power is also perfectly suited for many types of rescue missions, as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 demonstrated.