Written by Irene Bonzi
Illustrated by Laura Liu
On 24 February 2022, Europe woke up to a reality that was once thought to be left behind with the onset of the 21st century: war on the Continent. The increasingly politically polarized Europe, torn apart by anti-Union sentiments and populism, now faces the biggest challenge to its sovereignty since its creation. Since then, the continent has unsurprisingly fallen into an anxious spiral of what-to-dos. How do we defend ourselves if Russia attacks? What would a European defence structure even look like? While European leaders frenetically meet and attempt to shore up relations with President Trump, they all share one certainty: something must be done. Still, no one seems to agree on what that ‘something’ would look like.
Confronted with its weakened role in the global geopolitical order, the European Union is in a desperately urgent need to build an inter-state consensus on defence and security initiatives. In assessing the member states’ scrambled reactions and apparent impossibility of building a consensus amongst each other, two key structural issues stand out: the stepping back of the United States and nationalist, anti-EU sentiments stirred up by far-right populist parties across several member countries.
The union of European nations has never developed a concrete defence strategy or structure. The closest attempt was the signing of the European Defence Community (EDC) treaty in 1952 – an effort ultimately aborted due to individual states’ ambitions and the prevalence of NATO. While several other initiatives and programs were put forward and remain in place to this day (such as the European Union’s Security and Defense Policy), the EDC still represents the only attempt by the states to build a truly common and shared defence capability.
From the outset, European integration relied on the protection of NATO’s – essentially the U.S.’s – security umbrella. For the past seventy years, few have doubted the sufficiency of NATO’s defence for the continent, even as the Obama administration shifted the geopolitical priorities of the United States towards the Asia-Pacific region. The Trump presidency merely brought to the surface in a very blunt way what has long been clear to scholars: the US cannot be relied upon due to its other concerns. In the past eight months, European leaders have unsuccessfully attempted to patch up an unstable transatlantic relationship. It is time that all European leaders, without exception, not only acknowledge the reality of American disengagement, but also come to the realization that they are all on the same side.
It is difficult, however, to imagine how all European countries could reach such a realization under the looming shadow of far-right nationalism and anti-EU sentiments. How do you defend and preserve something that so many want dismantled? Anti-EU movements and sentiments have been stirring up in the past decade in virtually every European country and have opened a major crack in the alliance. Political parties advocating for their countries to exit the Union quickly emerged across the EU: Italexit in Italy, AfD in Germany, PVV in the Netherlands – clearly inspired by the UK’s Brexit. These movements have long pushed back against “losing control to Brussels” in order to defend national interests. Such an approach simply avoids seeing a very clear reality: there is no state in the European Union that has sufficient defence capabilities to fight off a hypothetical attack by an external state such as the Russian Federation.
The necessity of defending the continent could also represent an opportunity for the Union to reform itself and tackle its many bureaucratic and internal fragmentations, reestablishing its place in the global scenario independently of the U.S. The European Union now stands at the greatest crossroads since its foundation. Its structural problems have become existential challenges that must be overcome in order to stand on its own. Europe must confront both its declining global relevance and the growing nationalist tensions within itself. The urgency of the moment requires immediate action. What it needs in order to survive is concrete proposals that European states can all agree upon, which work towards the common goal of preserving statehood and sovereignty of members while establishing a sound defence strategy.
