2021
DOI: 10.1162/isec_a_00405
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Illusions of Autonomy: Why Europe Cannot Provide for Its Security If the United States Pulls Back

Abstract: Europe's security landscape has changed dramatically in the past decade amid Russia's resurgence, mounting doubts about the long-term reliability of the U.S. security commitment, and Europe's growing aspiration for strategic autonomy. This changed security landscape raises an important counterfactual question: Could Europeans develop an autonomous defense capacity if the United States withdrew completely from Europe? The answer to this question has major implications for a range of policy issues and for the on… Show more

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Cited by 47 publications
(17 citation statements)
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“…On the other hand, this loss of influence can be tolerated as the UK does not regard the EU as a meaningful defence actor. European efforts to achieve strategic autonomy are still hampered by several constraints: profound capacity shortfalls that will be hard to close and even harder without the UK, divergences across all domains of national defence policies, otherwise called ‘strategic cacophony’ (Meijer and Brooks 2021 , 10), varying threat perceptions and also differing views of China, something that has created notable rifts among EU Member States (Santander and Vlassis 2021 ). On top of that, the Ukraine war has strongly unified NATO, reprioritising its core task of collective defence (Bell 2022 ).…”
Section: The Uk’s Role As a Military Power And The Brexit-induced Los...mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…On the other hand, this loss of influence can be tolerated as the UK does not regard the EU as a meaningful defence actor. European efforts to achieve strategic autonomy are still hampered by several constraints: profound capacity shortfalls that will be hard to close and even harder without the UK, divergences across all domains of national defence policies, otherwise called ‘strategic cacophony’ (Meijer and Brooks 2021 , 10), varying threat perceptions and also differing views of China, something that has created notable rifts among EU Member States (Santander and Vlassis 2021 ). On top of that, the Ukraine war has strongly unified NATO, reprioritising its core task of collective defence (Bell 2022 ).…”
Section: The Uk’s Role As a Military Power And The Brexit-induced Los...mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In a semantic sense, an institution means the existence of a systematized relationship between the parties, expressed in the format of collective security, i.e., kind of institutional framework. Thus, some experts note that the spectrum of perception of Russia as a key threat is significantly different -France and the Netherlands do not see Russia as a threat, Germany and the UK perceive it at an average level, and only Poland and the Baltic countries give priority in terms of perception of Russia as the main source of threat (Meijer, Brooks, 2021).…”
Section: Institutionalization Of the Security System In Europementioning
confidence: 99%
“…The results are military capacity shortfalls that will be hard to close, causing this security deficit. This makes some scholars ask whether European strategic autonomy is just an illusion (Meijer & Brooks, 2021).…”
Section: "Comprehensive Neo-functionalism" As a Framework For Analysi...mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…These differences relate to the EU's relationship with NATO and the US, i.e., how Europe should respond to a reduced US will to lead. In addition, this discontinuity also relates to differences in threat perceptions and whether security and defence should become more supranational (Meijer & Brooks, 2021).…”
Section: The European Security Deficitmentioning
confidence: 99%