Europe is waking from a long and dangerous dream. For decades, peace was taken for granted and deterrence was treated as someone else’s task. That age of comfort is over. The wars burning on Europe’s borders and the rise of assertive authoritarian powers have ended every illusion. The lesson is simple and severe: Peace has a price – and those who wish to live free must be willing to pay it.
That price today is measured not only in courage and political will, but in hard numbers. The message from across the Atlantic could not be any clearer: Europe must treat defense spending not as a reluctant obligation, but as the foundation of its sovereignty. The United States will remain the cornerstone of NATO, but it expects European allies to carry their share of the weight. In an age of strategic contest, credibility is measured in budget lines, capabilities, and readiness – not in speeches.
Some nations grasped this truth earlier than others. Poland, scarred by history and geography, has surged to nearly 5% of GDP in defense expenditure, the highest in the Alliance. The Baltic states, who know that deterrence is a condition for survival, have committed themselves to military readiness, cyber resilience, and societal defense. They do not spend for prestige; they spend to endure.
Greece, too, has long stood out as a country punching above its weight. Year after year, it ranks among the top spenders in NATO relative to GDP, a reflection not just of regional tensions but of a deep-seated understanding: Geography matters, and proximity to volatile regions – the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, the Balkans – demands vigilance. In recent years, the Greek government has made bold choices, investing across land, air and sea with a single aim: total deterrence. These choices are not symbolic; they are proof of foresight and seriousness.
Yet the strategic environment continues to evolve, and with it comes a question: Is this enough? At a time when adversaries are testing every frontier, from hybrid attacks and cyberattacks to drone warfare, even brave numbers may not suffice. Greece’s record is admirable, but the demands of deterrence are rising faster than its budgets. The next step is not only to sustain momentum but to accelerate it, move from being a reliable high spender to becoming Europe’s pace-setter: leading in innovation, driving regional defense production, and proving that strength on paper must translate into readiness in practice. The time has come to match Greece’s strategic ambition with defense budgets worthy of it.
The citizens of Europe must also grasp what is truly at stake. Defense spending is too often caricatured as money stolen from welfare or infrastructure. The truth is precisely the opposite.
Without security, there is no prosperity to protect, no democracy to preserve, no welfare to sustain.
Defense is not an alternative to freedom, prosperity and democracy; it is their precondition.For Europe as a whole, meeting 2% of GDP is no longer enough. What was once a target has become the bare minimum – the floor, not the ceiling. The SAFE initiative is a vital step, but Europe’s security cannot rest on programs alone. Each member-state must raise its own defense budget, reinforce its industrial base, and prove readiness not through declarations but through delivery. Success will depend on execution: turning plans into production, budgets into brigades, and innovation into credible deterrence. Europe must build supply chains that are resilient rather than dependent, industries that can deliver at speed, and technologies – from AI to drones, from cyber-defense to space – that keep it ahead of its rivals. Europe’s credibility will rest not on words, but on what it can deliver.
Beyond the numbers and programs lies a deeper truth. Defense budgets are more than economic allocations; they are signals. They signal to allies – above all, the United States – that Europe is serious about carrying its share of the common burden. They signal to adversaries that aggression will be met with resolve and capability. They signal to our own citizens that we understand the gravity of the moment and are willing to act before it is too late.
Europe’s new defense awakening is not about militarism; it is about realism. It is about declaring that the surest path to peace is the readiness to defend it. It is about ensuring that Europe remains a credible partner in the transatlantic alliance, not a dependent client. Above all, it is about giving future generations the one thing they will value most: peace secured by strength.
The question is no longer whether Europe can afford to spend more on defense. The real question is whether it can afford not to.
Themistoklis Chatziiakovou is a political scientist with an expertise on international security and transatlantic affairs.