Publications

European misconceptions over the relationship between the USA and NATO are commonplace: there is an unfortunate tendency to confuse US defence structures with NATO. There are many reasons why Europeans in general, and the French in particular, fail to understand the true nature of the relationship.

The war of aggression waged by Russia since 24 February 2022 by invading Ukraine, with no apparent reason other than the annexation of this country and its submission to Russian central power, has awakened people’s consciences in Europe and prompted the EU to take action, as COVID had done previously. The scale of the health crisis prompted the Member States of the European Union to take exceptional measures.

History, in its real or doctored version, is a vital factor in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. History was even one of the main reasons given by Russia when it declared war in 2022. However, history according to Vladimir Putin, President and Historian (two terms only applicable with a dose of sarcasm) or “President and History-maker” (Putin has repeatedly portrayed himself as a man on a historical mission), has remained the same since his speech at the 2007 Munich Security Conference, reiterated in his essay “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians”, published in 2021. It is fundamental to the ideology behind not only Russian propaganda but also its pop culture, a recurrent theme in its music, films and visual arts.

During the Madrid Presidents Meeting in 2019, EDNL presented an article I had written on EU defence. The title was: “Europe’s security is Europe’s responsibility.” It emphasized the need for the EU to be able to defend itself against outside threats without the help of the USA, since the EU foreign and defense policy and US foreign and defense policy were not necessarily always identical but could one day even be contradictory. I suggested that the Eurodefense network should adopt this principle and develop concepts and recommendations to EU governments and institutions on how to develop the EU in that direction.

How is Europe adapting to today’s crises? To what extent has it presented a united front during recent conflicts?
Unfortunately, wars are being waged on a number of continents, in Europe as elsewhere. While we, in Western Europe, may consider that, overall, we have enjoyed decades of peace, other Europeans do not share this view.

The 1990s saw the collapse of the USSR and, with it, the disappearance of a potential threat. China, for its part, was enjoying economic growth but had yet to become a military power. At the time, therefore, the United States had a de facto monopoly over world power. The West dominated the world, and crises were managed through the UN. In the absence of any real existential threat, Europe relaxed its strategies and its defence went from being the State’s “main reason for existence” to a “necessary budgetary evil”. Even though a new threat, Islamic terrorism, emerged during this time, this state of affairs continued until 2010.