Ongoing Russian aggression towards Ukraine underscores the importance of solidarity in the transatlantic relationship. The last decade, however, has exposed fissures between the United States and its European partners, as well as uncertainty over Washington’s long-term commitment to Europe. Disagreements last year over the Anglo-American sale of submarines to Australia, German support for a Russian-financed natural gas pipeline, and the withdrawal of Western forces from Afghanistan mark these disruptive trends. The concept of European “strategic autonomy” — Europe’s capacity to pursue its interests abroad and to defend itself at home — has reemerged as a possible solution to NATO’s internal tensions and the challenges confronting transatlantic relations.
During the Cold War, Washington shouldered most of the burdens of European security, and European NATO members largely accepted Washington’s leadership. In the last decade, however, successive American leaders have become frustrated by Europe’s failure to increase its defense expenditures and contribute more meaningfully to security policy. President Obama upbraided other NATO members as “free riders” in 2016. Accordingly, strategic autonomy is meant to encourage Europeans to boost their defense expenditures, thereby bolstering NATO’s capabilities and addressing American concerns over free-riding. However, strategic autonomy also exposes divergences between American and European foreign policy interests, channeling French president Emmanuel Macron’s fear that NATO is becoming “brain dead.” Whether strategic autonomy is a template to reinforce NATO, or one to replace it, depends on how American and European leaders articulate and implement the concept in years to come.
Questions and Background
- Which is likelier to impede strategic autonomy in the long term, Europe’s lack of will to develop military capabilities or inability to coordinate a common foreign policy?
- Should the United States encourage strategic autonomy to rebalance burden-sharing within NATO, or discourage it as a risk to NATO’s cohesion?
- How does recent diplomacy between European, American, and Russian officials illustrate the potential for and limits on European strategic autonomy?
Putin Announced His Manifesto Against the West Fifteen Years Ago. His Story Hasn’t Changed
Daniel Fata, The Bulwark. February 7, 2022.
The EU’s Strategic Autonomy Trap
Richard Youngs, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. March 8, 2021.
Why European Strategic Autonomy Matters
Josep Borrell, European Union External Action Service. December 3, 2020.
Is Going It Alone the Best Way Forward for Europe?
Alina Polyakova and Benjamin Haddad. October 17, 2018.