Europe is changing, and fast. For the world’s most persuasive normative superpower, the European Union (EU), the age of peace evangelism is now history. Europe is changing so fast that conversations in certain European capitals have become unrecognisable when compared to just four months ago, before US President Donald Trump’s second term began. Europe, of Metternich and Machiavelli, is going back to its realpolitik roots. Formally ushering in this change, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen unveiled an €800-billion project in early March: “We are in an era of rearmament.”

Later last month, von der Leyen further explained what European rearmament means: “The era of the peace dividend is long gone. The security architecture that we relied on can no longer be taken for granted. Europe is ready to step up. We must invest in defence, strengthen our capabilities, and take a proactive approach to security. We are taking decisive action, presenting a roadmap for ‘Readiness 2030’, with increased defence spending, important investments in European defence industrial capabilities.”

It appears that Europe’s post-national experiment was unsustainable in a world of nation-States vying for power. If it took Vladimir Putin to recall Europe from its geopolitical vacation, Trump’s America is getting Europe to work (read ReArm).

The EU’s quest to become a major security and........

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