With all eyes seemingly turned towards the United States’ drive to renew defense innovation and restructure its channels for procurement, Europe’s efforts to do likewise might be too easily overlooked—or worse yet, misunderstood. Over the past ten years, European countries have been steadily making strides towards revamping their militaries and enhancing collective capabilities, all while aiming to achieve “strategic autonomy” and prepare for next-generation warfare. Although this process got off to a slow, perhaps rocky, start initially, more recent European initiatives signal renewed effort and determination. The European Union (EU) may just succeed at making itself, not only a stronger military power, but also its own source of military innovation and manufacturing. We should expect to see additional benchmarks for this process in early 2018.
School Authors: Steve Fetter
Other Authors: Charles L. Glaser, James M. Acton