Integrated national militaries?

Would it ever be possible for certain countries of the world to fully integrate their militaries into one cohesive whole, i dont mean like NATO or the warsaw pact where co-operation and general similarities in weapons systems occur. I mean where say two or more countries commision a military in which all pesonnel and weaponary are under one and only one central command just like a regular national military but a few orders of magnitude bigger.
I think the EU may be heading this way and it seems very possible that it could happen in the next 30 years or maybe sooner, but what about other areas of the world who have the same general interests and philosophies? Could we one day see instead of 10s of independant fighting forces just a few massive fighting units smiliar if not even larger than the US mlilitary?
And if this does become a reality it could be the end of wars as, barring nuclear war it could be just as destructive as WW2 was for the time or many times worse.
There are a few candidates at the moment: the EU countries, middle eastern countries, some of the smaller asian countries, south american countries, and Africa. It is impossible to tell at the moment which countries would form these alliances if any at all.

If this happens it will be between Germany and France first. Other smaller countries might join this club but the impetus has to come from the leading european countries. It will not happen EU-wide from the start, you can see it by the problems of putting up the EU crisis forces, there are simply too many governments with too many different aims part of that decision.

Germany and France already have co-working military forces in the border regions, these are probably sort of a test-scenario for what could come in the next years.

I cant see this happeing in the other areas you mention. International partnerships similar to the EU have come into fashion in many regions of the world, but most countries that try this lack the stability and trust to accomplish reliable ties.

Trust is the main problem here. creating a joint military will take sovereignity from the participating states. Since Germany and France have exceptionally strong political and social ties since 1949 and Konrad Adenauer (Im too lazy to remember his french counterpart) I guess it would start with creating more of these co-working military units. The technical similarities (Eurofighter, Eurocopter, Missile and Bomb co-development and others) will be of much help, as well as the wish to become independent of the USA in military decisions.

I also think the EU will be the first to have this kind of military structure, some countries such as China, India and maybe the US (because its population is not even 1/3 of China and India) might not ever need to go down this route purely because of there huge population and industrial and eventually economic base.

It's only a matter of time. I imagine that at some point that was the idea behind the UN and NATO, but it kind of doesn't work that way practically because no one is in agreement.

I would thing that the EU security forces are not far off.

I would expect it to happen in phases, advancing from common ammo, to identical equipment, eventually reaching compulsory military cooperation in all conflicts, with zero unilateralism, which allows for integrated organizations and logistics.
I believe that mixed nationality units throughout the force and unified command structure are a long long way off. I don't believe that we'll see multi-nationalism creep below the division level throughout a force so long as the nations remain technically sovreign. You've got to be able to take a division intact and do what you have to do with it, and not be slowed down by having to disintegrate allied regiments from that unit first.
You need commonality in weapons, communication, chain of command, and doctrine. Mixing the nationalities of the forces isn't really necessary as long as they operate together.

Germany and France are very good picks for that kind of cooperation.

Japan and South Korea are another but more distant possibility, perhaps even Australia would want a hand in such a West Pacific security force.

Britain and America would be good pick especially from Britain's standpoint. Joint ownership and operation of airwings equipped with modern aircraft such as F/A-22, or larger more expensive items like the proposed DD(X) or aircraft carriers would make it far more economically viable for Britain to maintain a very modern and strong force in all respects, while also giving them a little extra leverage over any American war plans. America might be keen on the idea of keeping an extra division and an extra carrier airwing and such as a joint venture between us and the UK at half price. It would be a nice little help for our thin-spread military.

The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps works with 3 comando quite a bit and go under 3 comando command when both in war I believe....

Originally posted by The Vagabond
Japan and South Korea are another but more distant possibility, perhaps even

Currently, Japan and SK do not see eye to eye. Given historical "difficulties" with Japan, it is hard to see where Japan might form an alliance in Asia. It is more likely to continue the alliance with the US.

However...they do still remember da bombs.....

as long as the seperate economies thrive im not sure the seperate states would be interested in such a venture. then look at advancments in technological orginazation, and the ability to operate worldwide economic infrastructure then you have the recipe for a NWO and unified military. time will tell

Originally posted by rapier28

Originally posted by The Vagabond
Japan and South Korea are another but more distant possibility, perhaps even

Currently, Japan and SK do not see eye to eye. Given historical "difficulties" with Japan, it is hard to see where Japan might form an alliance in Asia. It is more likely to continue the alliance with the US.

However...they do still remember da bombs.....

I seem to remember something about that, although I admit it slipped my mind at the time I mentioned that idea. Something about the Japanese not being sorry for WWII (in fact even Caspar Weinberger had a bit of a suspicious eye on them- he included it in his book "The Next War".)
At some point though I can't help wondering if Realpolitik will defeat old grudges, not against North Korea (the South just barely even wants our protection from them anymore) but perhaps if China started to seem like a threat things would change.
Basically if America has to pull back from that region and something bad happens, the South I think will have to find it in their heart to trust the Japanese. Yeah they're mean- but given their history they're one of those nations that you can definately trust to watch your back.

So yeah, a long shot, but the reasons are there- although you're right that this may never overpower old prejudices.