[continued from previous message]   
      
   means building a defense industrial base capable of resisting a   
   China-backed Russia.   
      
   Europe’s current defense-industrial base was built for the Cold War,   
   when battles were decided by heavy vehicles like tanks and ships and   
   planes. Those are still somewhat important, but drones have risen very   
   quickly to dominate the modern battlefield. Right now, drone   
   manufacturing, as well as almost the entire supply chain for   
   battery-powered drones, is overwhelmingly concentrated in China.   
      
   Europe needs to be able to build not just drones, but every single thing   
   that goes into making a drone — batteries, motors, various types of   
   computer chips, and so on. European industrial policy should therefore   
   focus on onshoring these industries. In other words, Europe needs to   
   master the entire Electric Tech Stack. (This will also help Europe get   
   back in the EV race.) And it needs to master the AI software — computer   
   vision, swarming tech, and so on — that will soon be needed in order to   
   make drones a truly modern force.   
      
   The question of the proper policy instrument to accomplish this goal —   
   tariffs, subsidies, fiscal borrowing, regulatory changes, and so on — is   
   irrelevant. All of these policies should be done as necessary, and it’s   
   better to do too much than too little. Policy procedure needs to be   
   subordinated to the overriding goal of making Europe capable of   
   defending itself. In fact, every European institution needs to be   
   reformed and reverse-engineered in order to enable this.   
      
   Europe is also going to have to change its political mindset. Lavish   
   pensions and other elements of Europe’s social model are going to have   
   to be temporarily curbed to help give Europe the fiscal space and   
   physical resources to fight off its enemies. All nuclear plants need to   
   be restarted, and Europe should build more nuclear, ignoring “green”   
   parties and environmental activists who irrationally hate nuclear power.   
   Europe needs to reform its land-use regulation to require greater   
   construction of solar and wind power. And Europe is going to have to   
   back off of its aggressive regulation of AI software, in order to   
   produce cutting-edge autonomous weaponry.   
      
   Finally, Europe needs to look for friends and allies — and export   
   markets — other than America. India is an obvious choice. Although India   
   is friendly with Russia, the country would undoubtedly welcome Germany’s   
   help industrializing — and this would allow German companies to sell   
   machines to India, as they once did to China. The EU should open its   
   markets to Indian goods in exchange for Indians doing the same,   
   recognizing that trade balances are less important than total export   
   demand. Japan, South Korea, and other big developing countries like   
   Indonesia, Vietnam, and Brazil are other good potential trading partners.   
      
   If Europe manages to unify more and to build up its military power, it   
   will increase the number of great powers in the world by one. A planet   
   with a strong Europe, America, China, Russia, and India is a better   
   planet than one where only the last four of those are strong. If Europe   
   shows it can act with unity and purpose, and that it has military power   
   to be reckoned with, America and China — both countries whose leaders   
   tend to respect raw power — may lose their disdain for the region, and   
   return to a more diplomatic, conciliatory posture.   
      
   Ultimately, European weakness and division are the reasons the region is   
   getting bullied by so many other powers. Reversing that weakness and   
   division would make the bullies go away. But Europe’s people, and   
   especially Europe’s elites, have to want it.   
      
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   1   
   And of course if Europe does expel the Muslim immigrants and start   
   talking up its Christian heritage, as the MAGA folks want, Democrats   
   will conclude that Europe is fascist and be reluctant to help it out   
   when they get back in power. Essentially, Europe is finding itself   
   caught in America’s internal culture wars, and there’s no good way out;   
   the only solution is to realize that the U.S. will not be a reliable   
   partner for decades to come.   
      
   2   
   Would Russia actually try to conquer and rule all of Europe directly, as   
   the Nazis tried to do? Unlikely. But would it try to dominate all of   
   Europe the way the USSR dominated the Warsaw Pact? Yes, definitely. And   
   this sort of domination would be very bad for Europeans, as the Poles   
   could tell you.   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)