Over time, the term began to assume a far more expansive meaning. Debate was further energized by signs of faltering European technological prowess, and especially by the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed European dependencies across a number of health-related sectors. reliability as an ally under President Donald Trump, China’s rising technological and norm-setting challenges, and signs that the EU could be trampled as the American and Chinese elephants collided. In the years that followed, the term gained traction in some EU countries as concerns in Europe mounted about U.S. The document “nurtures the ambition of strategic autonomy for the European Union,” but does not define the notion’s content or its implications. Yet it was only in 2016 that the “strategic autonomy” term was lifted to the EU level, with the publication of the bloc’s Global Strategy. Of course, the European Union (EU) has been trying to develop its capacity for military action for some decades. The term “strategic autonomy,” popular in some European circles and anathema in others, stems originally from an earlier discourse within the French strategic community to describe France’s ambition to boost its military capabilities and reduce its dependencies so that it could act alone if necessary to protect French interests, beginning with crisis management operations in Africa and along Europe’s southern periphery. As the alliance continues its most urgent task - helping Ukraine beat back Russia’s assault - it must address this important longer-term challenge of rebalancing trans-Atlantic defense.Ī more corrosive effect of Putin’s war… has been to deepen even further Europe’s strategic dependence on the United States - a trend that had already become unsustainable even before the conflict began.ĭoing so means squaring a triangle of issues: ensuring Europe’s capacity to defend itself against Russia and manage a range of additional crises, many along its southern periphery addressing European aspirations for greater strategic autonomy and maintaining confidence that the United States can adequately uphold its commitments in both the north Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific. North American-European unity has been remarkable, exemplified by harsh and complementary sanctions against Russia efforts to wean Europe off its dangerous dependence on Russian energy military, financial, and political support for Ukraine and actions to strengthen NATO’s own defense.Ī more corrosive effect of Putin’s war, however, has been to deepen even further Europe’s strategic dependence on the United States - a trend that had already become unsustainable even before the conflict began. Vladimir Putin’s greatest achievement thus far in renewing his brutal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine has been to reinvigorate the Atlantic alliance. Russia’s war has exposed Europe’s dependencies It would permit the United States to shift some of its forces and strategic focus to the Indo-Pacific region without any significant reduction in the capabilities needed to deter Russia. Meeting these two goals would allow Europe to become the first responder to most crises in its neighborhood, acting through NATO, through the EU, or through ad hoc coalitions of the willing. enablers such as strategic lift, refueling, and command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR). Second, European allies should develop capabilities to conduct crisis management operations in Europe’s neighborhood without today’s heavy reliance on U.S.
First, European allies should build their conventional military capabilities to a level that would provide half of the forces and capabilities, including the strategic enablers, required for deterrence and collective defense against major-power aggression. Advancing greater European strategic responsibility starts by defining the concept in a way designed to strengthen the Atlantic alliance.
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