And this is where it gets tough...

Stability operations take a long time. Counterinsurgency campaigns against aggressive enemies - with extensive safe areas in neighboring countries - take even longer in terms of time and even more in terms of blood and treasure. Western troops are the only troops trained and equipped to have any hope for success in most of these operations...but Western nations don't have the stomach for hard fights any more:

"...American military planners acknowledge that the war is becoming a tough sell: How do you persuade reluctant European governments with staunchly pacifist populations to dispatch frontline troops across the globe to fight such indistinct campaigns as the cat-and-mouse battle against the resurgent Taliban?"

Probably not a particularly good time in history to lose one's stomach for hard fights. It will be interesting to see if more desperate times ahead lead to more desperate measures - like an expansion of roles and responsibilities given to private military companies since few of the forces left in the EU can actually muster much more than a few battalions of infantry hamstrung by government regulations that stretch from the top of the political structure down to the private on patrol.