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Recently, “strategic autonomy” has become a central issue in Europe and has become a focus of global attention. The Russian-Ukurein conflict dramatically changes the European security environment and reveals significant weaknesses in European security systems. After the new US administration was openly “betrayed,” the illusion that European security could be relied on the United States was shattered, and “strategic autonomy” ultimately attracted the attention of EU and its member states.
The core of achieving Europe’s “strategic autonomy” is to build a strong, independent European security system. France and Germany are particularly focused on this issue. While French President Emmanuel Macron has publicly declared his goal of providing a nuclear umbrella to Europe, Germany’s waiting list Friedrich Merz led the push for a fiscal spending plan to inject 1 trillion euros into German infrastructure and defense industry over the next decade, passed by German lawmakers. While many European countries have shown positive intentions to achieve “strategic autonomy,” there is still a division within Europe regarding approaches to this issue. The differences between Eastern European countries are particularly obvious.
For a long time, differences in Eastern and Western European countries regarding different values ​​surrounding economic, social, cultural, development, and in particular “European identity” have often led to conflicts on major policy issues. This contradiction is also reflected in the attitudes of Eastern European countries towards Europe’s “strategic autonomy” plans. For example, Poland has strongly supported the continued aid to Ukraine and the EU’s proposed “European breeding” plan, and announced plans to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2025.
The UK and France have made major efforts to actively form Ukrainian “peacekeeping forces” that share the border with Ukraine, but it says it will not send troops. Regarding the nuclear umbrella, Polish President Andrzezi Duda publicly called on the United States to deploy nuclear weapons to polish them.
The large differences and disagreements of Eastern European countries regarding European security issues can be attributed to two main reasons.
First, Europe’s “strategic autonomy” plan has failed to alleviate long-standing security anxiety in Eastern European countries. Furthermore, the presence of US military in Eastern Europe means that countries such as Poland and Romania rely on US security guarantees. Due to the long-standing state of “military neglect” in Europe, these countries are clearly willing to trust the protections the United States offers. Poland’s reluctance to be deeply involved in Hungary’s decision to ease relations between Russia-Ukrainian conflict and Russia is an example of “self-preservation” behavior directly related to the belief that Europe cannot provide adequate security.
Second, the interests of Eastern European countries are not in perfect alignment with the EU security plans. When faced with the choices of “building infrastructure” and “guaranteed security,” Eastern European countries generally prioritize the former. One reason to support Poland’s military accumulation is to gain influence and stronger voices within the EU, rather than a real desire to engage in conflict.
While most Eastern European countries acknowledge the importance and importance of Europe’s “strategic autonomy”, persuading Franco-German-led “strategic autonomy” plans to embrace Franco-German-led plan is clearly not an easy task. The most challenging challenge is to help Eastern European countries overcome path dependence in the security sector and regain trust in Europe’s independent defence capabilities. In this regard, to create a European defense development plan that is consistent with the shared interests of all parties and that everyone will develop a major challenge the EU and its member states will face in the future.
The author is a senior researcher at the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
