What Strategy for European Defence?

The question of European defense strategy is at the heart of the debate, not least because of the geopolitical tensions and uncertainties surrounding the United States' commitment to Europe. Voices from all over Europe are calling for a more autonomous Europe. President Macron has spoken of the need for a “powerful Europe”, capable of defending its interests. While this vision was not universally shared within the EU, the US administration's new stance has rallied all countries around the need to strengthen European defense, from Poland and Finland to Italy and France. Even Germany, traditionally reticent about this approach, has taken the plunge and committed itself to massive indebtedness in order to strengthen the autonomy of German and European defense. All are convinced of the need to massively increase national and European defense spending. The issue now is to massively increase the industrial and technical defense bases across Europe, in a coordinated and rapid fashion. The challenge now is to reconcile national industrial ambitions in this area with the necessary coordination to avoid duplicating efforts and, on the contrary, maximize the joint effectiveness of these plans, while defense remains a national domain. Are EU member states ready for a new ESG - economy-security-geopolitics - and how?