{"id":490993,"date":"2025-10-11T12:41:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T12:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/490993\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T12:41:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T12:41:11","slug":"europe-must-become-a-strategic-actor-in-its-own-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/490993\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe must Become a Strategic Actor in its own Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent weeks, unidentified drones violated European Union airspace, prompting an emergency\u00a0meeting<\/a>\u00a0of European leaders, hosted by Denmark.<\/p>\n

In fact, such incursions have\u00a0proliferated<\/a>\u00a0over the last three months, with at least ten countries, from Poland and Romania to the Baltics and even France, reporting suspicious drone activity.<\/p>\n

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This trend underscores just how\u00a0exposed<\/a>\u00a0Europe is to security threats linked to Russia\u2019s hybrid-warfare campaign.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the biggest risk to Europe\u2019s security comes from the United States, where President Donald Trump\u2019s administration is adopting a foreign-policy posture that combines insularity and confrontation.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has made no secret of its disdain for America\u2019s security commitments, including those to its NATO allies.<\/p>\n

US Vice President J.D. Vance\u2019s\u00a0tirade<\/a>\u00a0at the Munich Security Conference in February \u2013 when he told European leaders that the biggest threat to their security comes \u201cfrom within\u201d \u2013 is a case in point.<\/p>\n

While the Trump administration claims that it is merely demanding that NATO countries uphold their own commitments, particularly concerning defense spending, it would be foolhardy for Europe to count on the US to uphold its end of any bargain.<\/p>\n

A warrior ethos<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the Trump administration, \u201cAmerica First\u201d is no mere slogan; it is a policy ethos used to justify inward-looking, capricious, and transactional approaches with no basis in rules, norms, or values.<\/p>\n

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\"Russian<\/p>\n

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Other Topics of Interest<\/p>\n

Russian Drone Strikes Kill Two, Injure Four in Chernihiv Oblast<\/a><\/p>\n

Russian drone strikes in Chernihiv Oblast killed a repair worker and injured four others after hitting utility vehicles and infrastructure, regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said.<\/p>\n

But it is not actually \u201cAmerica\u201d that comes first; it is Trump and his inner\u00a0circle<\/a>, who have raked in staggering riches since his return to the White House.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s new executive\u00a0order<\/a>\u00a0providing a full security guarantee to Qatar \u2013 which recently gave the US a $400 million jet that Trump is now modifying to serve as a new Air Force One \u2013 underscores just how erratic and opportunistic US foreign policy has become.<\/p>\n

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The Trump administration has gone from transactional to confrontational<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, however, the Trump administration has gone from transactional to confrontational.<\/p>\n

In an extraordinary meeting at Marine Corps Base Quantico, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth\u00a0lectured<\/a>\u00a0more than 800 military leaders, who had been flown in from around the world at great expense, about reclaiming a \u201cwarrior ethos,\u201d rejecting \u201cstupid\u201d rules of engagement, and renouncing \u201cwoke garbage,\u201d including \u201cclimate-change worship.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it was Trump who\u00a0summed<\/a>\u00a0up America\u2019s new approach to security, as he\u00a0affirmed<\/a>\u00a0that the \u201cDepartment of Defense\u201d is now, once again, to be called the \u201cDepartment of War.\u201d (Congress has not yet approved the name change.)<\/p>\n

This reverses a 1949\u00a0decision<\/a>\u00a0aimed at communicating America\u2019s commitment to restraint, legality, and civilian control of the military, at a time when the US was stepping into its role as the guarantor of a stable, rules-based world order.<\/p>\n

It thus signals America\u2019s abandonment of that order, which underpinned international relations \u2013 including broad-based multilateral cooperation and mutually beneficial economic engagement \u2013 for more than eight decades.<\/p>\n

New strategic reality<\/strong><\/p>\n

To be sure, this was more a confirmation of a policy shift than an announcement of one.<\/p>\n

Though the US has accrued untold benefits from its dominant position within the rules-based international order, the Trump administration has long railed against the associated costs and constraints.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, recent US moves herald a harsher world, in which skies and sea lanes are contested, supply chains are increasingly fragile, alliances are in flux, forceful power projection eclipses diplomacy, and the country that long underwrote global stability is nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n

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America\u2019s forthcoming National Defense Strategy places \u201cdomestic and regional missions\u201d aimed at protecting the \u201chomeland\u201d above efforts to counter threats from powerful foes<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In fact, America\u2019s forthcoming National Defense Strategy\u00a0places<\/a>\u00a0\u201cdomestic and regional missions\u201d aimed at protecting the \u201chomeland\u201d above efforts to counter threats from powerful foes like China or Russia, according to those who have seen a draft.<\/p>\n

The rest of the world is already beginning to adjust to this new strategic reality. Some, such as Australia and Japan, are doubling down on defense cooperation with the US, in the hopes that it has not lost sight of its interest in limiting China\u2019s hegemonic ambitions in the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

Others, such as India, Turkey, and the Gulf states, are hedging their bets through strategic diversification. Europe\u2019s response, however, leaves much to be desired.<\/p>\n

The era of \u201cwar\u201d has begun<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even if major withdrawals of US forces from Europe are avoided, a troop realignment is all but inevitable.<\/p>\n

So, if a security crisis does erupt \u2013 not a farfetched scenario, given Russia\u2019s hybrid warfare \u2013 the EU must be prepared to meet it.<\/p>\n

But while Poland, the Baltics, and the Nordic countries are racing ahead with rearmament, other countries are lagging.<\/p>\n

Even EU-level initiatives \u2013 including the European Defense Fund, a common EU defense industrial strategy, the Act in Support of Ammunition Production, the European Defense Industry Reinforcement through Common Procurement Act, and the Security Action for Europe financing tool \u2013 are undercut by fragmentation.<\/p>\n

Three imperatives stand out. First, Europe must focus on boosting its military capacity \u2013 ammunition, training, and air-defense capabilities \u2013 not on issuing more communiqu\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

Second, it must ensure cohesion: sanctions and export controls need to be applied uniformly, without carve-outs.<\/p>\n

Lastly, Europe must leverage its economic heft to strengthen its geopolitical position.<\/p>\n

The EU has the scale to deliver rapid progress on rearmament, including predictable, multi-year orders for European industry.<\/p>\n

But without a unified strategic approach, inefficiencies will drain resources, and interoperability will suffer.<\/p>\n

The EU would also benefit from greater cooperation with the United Kingdom. But, while the new EU-UK Security and Defense Partnershipis a step in the right direction, engagement will not be straightforward.<\/p>\n

Though the UK government still views NATO as the cornerstone of British security, it will also seek to assume a leadership role in tech-heavy coalitions like AUKUS (with Australia and the US) and the Global Combat Air Program (with Japan and Italy).<\/p>\n

The age of \u201cdefense\u201d is over, and the era of \u201cwar\u201d has begun. EU fragmentation, often discussed as a technicality, is now a grave liability, and defense spending, once viewed as discretionary, is now a matter of survival.<\/p>\n

Whatever happens next, Europe cannot lose sight of the existential nature of the security challenges it faces \u2013 or of America\u2019s unreliability as a partner. It must become a strategic actor in its own right.<\/p>\n

Ana Palacio, a former minister of foreign affairs of Spain and former senior vice president and general counsel of the World Bank Group, is a visiting lecturer at Georgetown University.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can find the original here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent weeks, unidentified drones violated European Union airspace, prompting an emergency\u00a0meeting\u00a0of European leaders, hosted by Denmark. In…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187],"class_list":{"0":"post-490993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}