EU defense, because Biden’s US joins a Pesco project
The in-depth analysis by Alessandro Marrone, head of the Iai Defense Program, for International Affairs
The meeting of the Defense Ministers of the European Union countries on May 6 took a politically and symbolically important decision for transatlantic relations: the acceptance of Washington's request to join a project of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (Pesco), one of the two main European defense initiatives.
Pesco was founded in 2017 to foster military cooperation between EU member states, with important industrial and technological implications, with a view to integrating their respective armed forces in support of the European security and defense policy and EU missions. All Member States participate in it except Denmark and Malta, and in two years 47 cooperation projects with variable geometry have been launched according to the interests of the participating countries.
So what does the United States have to do with it? In the French view, Pesco should be one of the pillars of the Union's strategic autonomy , have a high level of ambition, and act as an engine for greater European military engagement in Africa – as well as for a strengthening of the European defense industry. A vision that, in the post-Brexit EU and with Germany not interested in leadership in the field of defense, obviously sees France in a leading position.
BETWEEN UNION AND ALLIANCE
In the prevailing opinion in Germany, Italy and Central-Eastern Europe, Pesco should help member states to develop better and greater military capabilities, which can then be used both in EU missions and in the NATO framework, in a win-win logic between the Union and the Alliance. In this perspective, a greater ability to act in crisis management and a strengthening of the European industrial and technological base are certainly to be pursued, but to the point of jeopardizing the transatlantic relationship which is fundamental for the security of Europe.
This is a difficult balance to maintain. Some Pesco projects are fully in synergy with NATO, such as the Twister initiative to develop European space sensors and endo-atmospheric interceptors to be integrated into NATO missile defense. Other initiatives are functional to the European armed forces, and therefore to both the Alliance and the Union, but they are also in competition with the American defense industry, as in the case of the Euromale drone developed by France, Germany, Italy and Spain and which should provide an alternative to US remotely piloted aircraft.
THE US PENDULUM AND ITS IMPACT IN EUROPE
On the American side, too, the equilibrium point has fluctuated over the last decade, a bit like a pendulum. After the criticisms of the first George W. Bush administration of a strengthening of defense Europe, Barack Obama strongly supported the process that led to the EU Global Strategy and Pesco, while the Trump presidency opposed all defense initiatives. European Union in the name of an overall skepticism towards the EU.
Joe Biden marks a turnaround in this regard, favoring a stronger European pillar within the framework of a broad Western alliance that already has enough trouble facing China and Russia to afford further internal divisions.
Washington's current position has had a direct effect in a few months on European defense initiatives, which on the one hand have found a more favorable transatlantic climate, and on the other have lost some of the ambition for autonomy that was also fueled. from fears about the reliability of a Trump-led American security umbrella.
WASHINGTON IN THE MILITARY MOBILITY PROJECT
It is in this strategic framework that yesterday's decision takes on a certain symbolic value. The Pesco military mobility project in itself presents excellent concrete reasons for US participation. In fact, it is a question of adapting European infrastructures and the regulatory framework for a more rapid flow of military units and equipment in the EU, and the obvious scenario is that of a crisis on the borders with Russia that requires timely reinforcements from Europe. Western and United States.
It is no coincidence that the project, led by an Atlanticist state like the Netherlands, is among the few significant examples of NATO-EU cooperation, given the Alliance's need to better strengthen the Baltic front in the event of an escalation in Moscow. And it is no coincidence that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attended yesterday's meeting of EU defense ministers.
It therefore makes perfect sense that the United States, the main supplier of reinforcements, participate in the Pesco effort together with allies such as Canada and Norway, also admitted at yesterday's summit. An application from the United Kingdom would have been just as logical, but perhaps the friction between London and the EU in the new post-Brexit situation has weighed negatively in this regard.
SYMBOLIC VALUE
Beyond the concrete value of the initiative, the symbolic one should not be underestimated. The United States formally asked to join an EU military initiative as a third state, explicitly recognizing the goodness of European defense and committing itself to respecting a series of legal and political requirements . In doing this, they legitimized Pesco in the eyes of the most Atlanticist European countries, primarily Poland and the Baltic States, at the same time reducing its profile as an autonomous alternative so much pushed by France.
Obviously we must not overestimate the importance of the gesture. Much can change for Europe's security in just four years with a new American president, as evidenced by the Trump experience and Washington's subsequent exit from the Inf treaty with Russia and the Iran nuclear deal – and rumors criticisms and suspicions of a Franco-German-led EU bloc certainly do not disappear from the US panorama.
However, the situation at the moment seems to be turning towards a more pragmatic and mature intra-Western dialogue, in which European integration and transatlantic cohesion must go forward together to concretely address, and with greater European responsibility, the common challenges that arise. from the east and south of the Old Continent.
Article published on affarinternazionali.it
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/difesa-ue-gli-usa-di-biden-aderiscono-a-un-progetto-pesco/ on Sun, 09 May 2021 06:10:27 +0000.