Sophia Besch and Richard Youngs
Europe is facing a transformative moment. Both Russian aggression and the Trump administration’s political and economic antiliberalism are threatening the continent’s cohesion and stability. In response, Europe is considering quick fixes, such as gathering more money for defense—through spending by individual countries and loans from the European Union—and forming smaller coalitions of states to bring together like-minded governments. These patches will help Europe muddle through immediate turmoil but will not solve the continent’s most fundamental political and security challenges. Instead, European governments must design a new regional order through which they can achieve a more secure Europe.
The two main alliances of European states, the European Union and NATO, are too often paralyzed. The EU has struggled to implement much-needed reforms and is hobbled by growing differences among its member states. NATO, for its part, has relied on the United States to organize European security as the alliance’s first among equals. An effective security and defense policy depends on a shared sense of political community, which a successive string of crises—including the eurozone financial crisis, Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—has depleted. Without the disciplining power of U.S. leadership, Europeans must agree among themselves on exactly what they are defending and why.
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