Europe wants to show it’s ready for war. Would anyone show up to fight?

Nice tanks you got there, Europe—got anyone to drive ’em? Such are the taunts the continent’s generals might have to endure following the announcement of a splurge in defence spending expected from the NATO summit in The Hague on June 24th-25th. Assuming European governments don’t bin their commitments to bigger defence budgets once some kind of peace is agreed to in Ukraine—or Donald Trump leaves the White House—spending on their armed forces will roughly double within a decade. A disproportionate slug of the jump from a 2% of GDP spending target to 3.5% will go towards purchasing equipment. But armies are about people, too. Attracting youngsters to a career that involves getting shot at has never been easy; a bit of forceful nagging (known in military jargon as “conscription”) is already on the cards in some countries. Even dragooning recalcitrant teens into uniform will not solve a problem that is lurking deep in the continent’s psyche. Europeans are proud of their peaceful ways. If war breaks out there, will anybody be there to fight it?