France’s President Macron has long been an advocate of “Europe,” by which he mainly means the EU, achieving “strategic autonomy.” After the bust-ups of the last few months between the U.S. and its allies, the need for that autonomy is viewed in many European capitals as being much more pressing.

But how to achieve it?

Not the least of the problems associated with strategic autonomy is that it is likely to prove expensive. That could, embarrassingly, be very tricky for France (among others). It has an almost American-sized debt/GDP ratio of 117 percent (nearly twice the level provided for in the "rules-based" ...

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