Europe: The Strength - and Fragility - of Unity

Europe's ties with traditional allies seem to have broken, and collectively it is now turning inward. Leaders and their positions are in the headlines, but on the ground?

Key Observations

• Europe has had the economic power, technology and industrial base to rapidly scale its defence spending before now. That it has failed to do so speaks of a larger apathy away from the halls of power. Europe must overcome complacency reinforced by now outdated policy positions.

• In reforming European defence infrastructure and fiscal landscape, the European Union should seek to strike a balance of support for unscaled cutting-edge defence companies and established industrial suppliers to achieve mass for fundamental supplies – ammunition, spare parts, wheels, etc – and maximise potential defence and security moonshots (aka, larger, accelerated projects of catch up).

• Australia should move quickly to strengthen security ties with the European Union. Such action would assist a security pact between Western liberal democracies, sans the United States, help build ties with other partners – especially South Korea and Japan – and help enable access to emerging technologies, research, markets and defence capability at a time when Australia's traditional sources are increasingly tenuous.

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The fallout between the United States and Europe has been well covered following Trump+Vance and Zelenskyy’s blowup in the Oval Office. The discomfort in Europe is palpable: European leaders have realised just how integral the United States has been to their fortunes even since the end of the Cold War as they look to untangle themselves from wavering security assurances. The change for Europe will need to be seismic to achieve its goals; such deep changes will bring other concerns to the table.