Initial Officer Selection

[ganulv]

Spain and Portugal are fine examples for countries which could get along as neutral countries just fine. Sweden did well, too.

Besides; I was rather writing about deterrence and non-aggression policy than about neutrality. Defensive alliances that do not turn aggressive may be fine.

Repeat:

Occasionally deterrence is not perfect, but it's the prime mechanism to preserve peace next to good relations and not proved to be a failure at all.

How would you assess Portugal’s colonial wars within your framework? Were they the result of policy failure—either via poor colonial administration or just by trying to maintain colonies in the first place—or were they the result of a failure in deterrence (my understanding being that during the initial period of the anti-colonial violence the fact that the Portuguese forces stationed in their colonies received second-rate kit was indicative of their relative importance in the scheme of things)? Or both or neither?