If former U.S. president Donald Trump was a wake-up call for Europeans that they need to take more responsibility for security and defense, Europe lost too much time in the past four years discussing abstract notions of strategic autonomy while making only piecemeal progress toward becoming a more capable security actor.
1 With the new administration of U.S. President Joe Biden recommitting the United States to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the challenge facing Europe could be the very opposite: how to avoid relapsing into complacency and lazy transatlanticism.
Instead, Europe must capitalize on Biden’s election to finally deliver on becoming a stronger security player in its own right and, in so doing, a stronger partner to Washington. That starts with the Europeans assuming greater responsibility for their Eastern and Southern neighborhoods and contributing more to addressing hybrid and cyber threats. The specter of a possible return of an America First U.S. f
In November, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made headlines when he announced that the Ministry of Defence would receive an extra £16.5 billion over four years on top of its annual budget, set at £41.5 billion for 2020. This is the biggest British defence investment since the end of the cold war. The decision was particularly noteworthy because it came on the back of the chancellor’s decision to cancel the planned comprehensive spending review in light of the covid-19 pandemic, and to award all government departments only a one-year funding deal instead. The prime minister said that he had decided to give the Ministry of Defence an exemption to “end the era of retreat”.