Defense Independence from US: EU Challenges, Potentials

As it appears in the two sides' views, these bonds no longer help to save the American-European convergence.

Over the past two years, the Western officials' comments stand proof to the deteriorating relations. The US, for instance, has been trying to put part of the costly responsibilities on 5ts allies. President Donald Trump has been vocal about this, arguing that the heavy burden of defense spending on collective security only left Washington grappling with resultant economic damages. On the other side stand the Europeans who protest the Trump’s policies by breaking with US policies and pushing against Washington’s unilateralism.

The European opposition to Trump’s political pathway has so far failed to force a shift in his approach to settle their security and military troubles as half a century of standing under the cover of the US influence, majorly through NATO, has left them devoid of a power to independently counter the threats.

Brussels, as the capital of the European Union, now views Trump as the mirror reflecting the reality of American political transformation which is a corollary of the end of unipolar world order amid shrinking US power which is, in turn, blamed by some American circles on the heavy American costs paid to protect the allies. That is what driving the European leaders to overcome the problems independently and protect the bloc's cohesion.

Over the past weeks, President Emmanuel Macron of France and the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in a seemingly coordinated stance called for the EU to set up security and military independence. Macron called for implementing a mechanism that will allow for the European states to engage in military cooperation out of the boundaries of the NATO. The German FM in an article published by the German newspaper Handelsblatt emphasized on the need for a revision of the US-EU ties and called for only a “moderate partnership” with the Americans. This recommendation comes with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel in May last year said that Washington was no longer reliable partner for Europe and that the EU should control its own fate. With regards to the challenges ahead of the EU, the analysts suggest that these postures by the Europeans do not stem from fantasies but from understanding the necessity to review security and defense ties with the US.

After 2010, the geopolitical view across the Union changed, influenced by a string of developments inside Europe and elsewhere. The Libyan civil war, Syrian crisis, emergence of ISIS terror organization, the refugee crisis, the Ukrainian crisis and Russian annexation of Crimea Peninsula, Brexit referendum in Britain, and rise of right-wing politics in Europe are the examples. Following these developments and assumption of office at the White House by Donald Trump, the intra-European defense cooperation found a priority after decades of silence as a result of NATO military dominance.

In December 2016, first serious move towards this end was made as European leaders agreed to discuss ways to launch a strategic operation center to prepare for founding a European army. In November 2017, the foreign ministers of 25 states, excluding Britain, Denmark, and Malta, signed PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation) pact meant to coordinate inter-EU defense manufacturing, expanding security cooperation, encouraging joint investment, and gaining further independence in decision making.

The PESCO sought to tell the US that it was different from the earlier announcements made by EU members on building joint defense capabilities. During a meeting of the EU foreign and defense ministers in March, the bloc created the Military Planning and Conduct Capabilities (MPCC) center, a command center aimed to coordinate external military operations.

But a question remains feeding the debates in the European and foreign expert circles: Could the EU stand on its feet to deter security threats and challenges? There are a set of obstacles facing the bloc as it continues the journey to defense independence. Military weakness is the primary one. While the rival powers such as China and Russia over the past decades shored up their military capabilities considerably, the EU fell behind as it failed to invest on military potentials amid austerity measures taken to address the 2008 economic crisis. 

The European reliance on the foreign raw materials is another hurdle. EU imports a major part of its material for manufacturing arms from abroad. It also relies on foreign energy resources. This compounds the difficulty building its own deterrence.

The US opposition to European military independence is another challenge. The Americans are concerned that should EU found its own army, it will take its financial resources from NATO as a US-dominated organization. Trump presses the Europeans to allocate 2 percent of their national gross domestic production (GDP) to the defense sector and NATO budget. He threatened to pull Washington out of the Western military alliance if the Europeans decline to fast meet his demands.

Despite these handicaps, EU power to build military independence is never limited. The alliance is one of the world’s economic and industrial poles, a feature crucial to improve military capabilities. Right now, the European states are able to build strategic weapons like cutting-edge fighter jets, ballistic missiles, nuclear bombs and submarines, and aircraft carriers. Moreover, over two decades of regional convergence and developing capabilities in political, economic, cultural, and security cooperation can help the bloc gain its military autonomy.

Moreover, Europe knows that Trump’s threat to exit from the NATO is hardly executable as Washington needs to save this alliance which is beneficial to its foreign policy goals.

And finally, part of EU security troubles have roots in the US militarism in West Asia and North Africa, moving close to the Russian borders, and harming the EU unity by encouraging right-wing politics’ rise in the Continent. These motivate Europe’s will to reduce military dependence on the US.