May 14, 2018
The US Should Embrace the EU’s New Defense-Cooperation Plan
In late December, all but three European Union nations agreed to activate the continent’s latest, and perhaps most promising, effort to coordinate their defense investments. This initiative, dubbed PESCO for Permanent Structured Cooperation, has largely been met with bewilderment and concern on this side of the Atlantic. But U.S. officials should welcome it — and press the EU’s leading nations to use its framework to move from project-based collaboration to properly resourced militaries with credible capability.
Thus far, deeper EU defense cooperation has remained more of a dream on paper than reality. These efforts began in earnest at the 1998 St. Malo Summit where French President Jacque Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair signed a declaration recognizingthe EU’s need to “have the capacity for autonomous action, backed up by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a readiness to do so.” The announcement caused alarm in the Clinton administration. During NATO’s 50th anniversary summit, then-Secretary of State Madeline Albright proclaimed that there should be no delinking European defense from NATO, no duplication of existing efforts, and no discrimination against non-EU members.
Read the Full Article at Defense One
More from CNAS
-
In Russia's Perceived War with the West, Arms Control is Collateral Damage
Commentary
Russia seemingly perceives previously established arms control agreements as elements of the broader Western-dominated political and security order that it aims to overturn....
By Nicholas Lokker
-
Republicans Saved Democracy Once. Will They Do It Again?
Commentary
Despite different political and historical contexts, the playbook these personalist leaders use to dismantle democracy has been identical....
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Joseph Wright & Erica Frantz
-
What's to Come in 2025
Podcast
As we welcome the New Year, Brussels Sprouts is zooming out for a big-picture view of what to expect in 2025. Top of mind is the impact of a second Trump presidency on U.S. fo...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Jim Townsend
-
Trump 2.0 and the Return of ‘Court Politics’
Podcast
Erica Frantz is a leading scholars on personalist regimes, in both their democratic and their authoritarian forms and the co-author, with Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Joseph Wrig...
By Erica Frantz & Andrea Kendall-Taylor
