Its kinda strange to hear *Europe* of all places having a hard time reasserting itself via hard power. We are talking about the continent that was home to some of the most aggressive imperial legacies in history, whose after effects are pretty much the battle lines of many of the low intensity conflicts today.

The real challenge to developing that hard power is finding a way to not speak with 28 voices. Germany France Italy Spain and every other EU state has to be willing to hand over control of its military to a central authority, and not in a defensive sense like NATO, but an organization that can actually mobilize Europe as a whole to project power.  

Theres always a lot of talk on reddit about forming this EU military but I don't think the true hurdles are clearly understood. The groundwork can be layed but it can't just be some shared brigade between France and Germany.  Will there be a central military academy? A single code of military justice? Europe currently fields at least a half dozen separate main battle tanks.  Even the UK and France couldn't agree on a common aircraft carrier design.