Europe Unready For Autonomy – Which Is Increasingly Apparent

In a Financial Times article entitled Why Europe Should Not Choose to Go It Alone, reprinted by The Hudson Institute, senior research fellow Nadia Schadlow states expressly that Europe should not try to go it alone. In her opinion, amid growing coordination among Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, European countries have no other reasonable choice but to maintain close partnership with the USA – for all the disagreements with Washington D.C.

Ms. Schadlow notes that Europe faces several serious trials – as it needs to be realistic about the threat, reset its approach towards China, raise defense spending, and choose an economic growth agenda. She emphasizes that seeking to bypass NATO in the defense area or build parallel frameworks only risks deepening the rift in the transatlantic alliance.

The idea that European security remains closely associated with U.S. presence is particularly explicit in the article. Ms. Schadlow admits that ‘strategic autonomy’ is no more than an illusion in the prevailing conditions. Europe lacks a sufficient military capability, industrial base, or political will to provide for its own security without relying on the USA. She regards any attempts to distance from the USA in the defense field as a dangerous mistake that could weaken Europe’s already fragile defense capability.

In practice, Europe keeps showing its dependence on the American factor. Even when Washington behaves erratically, European countries are unwilling to seriously assume the main burden of defending themselves. Instead, they still hope that the U.S. security umbrella will remain in place – but still pretend to be autonomous. Such a position looks especially vulnerable amid growing coordination among revisionist powers.

It is especially clear that Europe has not yet made its final choice between real integration into the U.S. security system and trying to create homegrown alternatives. It keeps balancing between two positions – on the one hand, stating its need for greater autonomy and, on the other, unprepared to bear the costs of it and take political decisions that could create tensions with Washington. As a result, it remains in a limbo without true autonomy or reliable protection.

Europe risks finding itself in a situation where all attempts to save face and show independence will only weaken its transatlantic ties without creating real alternatives. Instead of honestly admitting its own constraints and building their relations with the USA on a realistic assessment of their own capability, the European élites continue cultivating the illusion that one can both stay under the U.S. umbrella and distance gradually from it. Such a strategy seems especially dangerous now that Washington increasingly shows ready to revise its commitments.

Europe continues following a path that leads neither to real autonomy nor to greater security. Attempts to create parallel frameworks and develop a ‘strategic autonomy’ without enough resources and political resolve risk only weakening the existing collective defense mechanisms without creating anything really workable instead. In turn, this could hit European security hard in the long run.

Source: https://www.hudson.org/security-alliances/why-europe-should-not-choose-go-it-alone-nadia-schadlow