What Europe is Missing.

The Discussion about European Defense Often Misses the Greatest Weakness

Hi All

The discussion around European defense has really heated up over the last few days, particularly on whether/how European states could intervene on behalf of Ukraine. The impending return of Donald Trump to the White House seems, finally to have caused some European leaders to consider steps they should have imagined months, if not years earlier. The French Paper, Le Monde, released a story on Monday (yesterday) which said in particular that the British and French governments are discussing how they might both deploy forces to Ukraine. Though we are still a long way from any agreement, the fact that such discussions are being reported is noteworthy. And these reports elicited a Russian government response that such an idea had to be nonsense.

This was only one story discussing the idea of what Europe could/might do for Ukraine on its own. Indeed, its part of a larger discussion that has going on for a while about whether Europe is capable of defending itself without the USA. This was indeed the title of a major Financial Times story which even asked in its title “Can Europe Defend Itself Without America”.

Its a fascinating discussion and certainly one that I’ve been trying to influence. Edward Stringer (who is quoted extensively in the FT piece) and I published a sketch plan for what Europe would have to do with NATO if Trump were elected and downgraded or even ended US commitment to the alliance.

In some ways, however, much of the discussion is asking the wrong question. Its not a question of whether Europe can defend itself (of course it can) its whether European states can imagine defending themselves. Its an emotional/intellectual problem, not one of intrinsic strength. And because the question is one of perception, its that much more tricky to answer.

Of Course Europe Can Defend Itself