A common strategy among 27 members is a fantasy—and would make Europe less likely to stand up to Russia.

By Jakub Grygiel, a professor of politics at the Catholic University of America.

The United States needs militarily strong European allies that are capable of holding Europe’s frontiers in the east and south against the threats of an imperial Russia and unstable North Africa.

Successive U.S. administrations have called on European allies to do more for their own defense, including higher spending, improved capabilities, and more serious deterrence. These entreaties have been met with some positive responses, especially among NATO’s eastern frontier states, including Poland, Finland, and the Baltic countries. Most other European governments, however, continue to drag their heels. Europe’s largest economy, Germany, is already backtracking from the military upgrade it promised after Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2022. There is a large and widening gap between the Europeans’ rhetoric of opposing Russia’s territorial ambitions and their ability to actually do something about it.

One much-discussed solution to these lagging efforts is for the European Union to take on a bigger security role. By pooling resources, centralizing defense procurement, and setting a common strategy, the EU would solve the problem of the various member states not pulling their weight on defense. Some even see this as culminating in the creation of a joint European military. The EU would thus adopt the ultimate marker of a modern polity: the provision and management of national security.

Source: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/09/02/eu-europe-military-security-defense-army-russia-geopolitics/