ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Western European armed forces, particularly in relation to the transformation agenda. It also focuses change of Western European militaries since the Cold War. The chapter discusses the impact of transformation agenda on UK, French and German forces. European government want to see their armed forces as stabilisers. People see changes in armed engagement, public expectations and the geo-political projection of power, they have to ask to what degree Western European armed forces are able to cope with the post-territorial warfare of the future. The European militaries think of modernisation and force transformation, the transatlantic relationship, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the US military all play a role as socialisers and ordering from the menu. Network centricity became an important part of the US transformation agenda and subsequently a cornerstone for NATO transformation efforts. The French Army has a long history of expeditionary forces, owing to their colonial and post-colonial military operations in Africa.
