Europe Hopes To Become “War-Weapons Storehouse” To Save Its Economy

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Written by Uriel Araujo, PhD, anthropology researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts

If one randomly looks at today’s news, one will find, for example, that Euronews is reporting that Europe is facing an automotive industry’s crisis – well, it is not the only crisis currently haunting the continent. Europeans are also facing once again an energy crisis in winter (and, yes, it is due to the conflict in Ukraine). Moreover, the cost of living is now the main concern amongst Europeans.

Oh, there is also a migration crisis, with Germany re-establishing border controls amid a rising anti-immigration political atmosphere – actually, since 2015, the Schengen area countries have often reintroduced border controls within the area. Of course, the so-called far-right is also on the rise all over Europe. Well, there might be a solution for all such ills and crises, though – and the European Establishment seems to believe it all comes down to turning the European welfare state into a warfare state.

On September 19, for one thing, the European Parliament passed a non-binding resolution calling for European countries supplying missiles to Ukraine to allow the Eastern European nation to use them against Russian targets. European plans, however, go way beyond that, with NATO European troops (but somehow “not NATO”) already being deployed in Ukraine.

Santiago Zabala (ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona) and Claudio Gallo (former La Stampa foreign desk editor and London correspondent, who has written for AsiaTimes, and Enduring America) both argue that European political and economic elites hope that building up the military could “boost the flailing European economy.” Mario Draghi (the former president of the European Central Bank and a former Italian Prime Minister), for example, published a report in September, called “The Future of European Competitiveness”, that calls for the European Union (EU) to build up its armament industry.

Things could be going precisely this way: the post of Europe’s defense commissioner has been recently created as a response to the “Russian threat” – and its nominee, Andrius Kubilius, has claimed, quite bluntly, that the EU should become  a “war-weapons storehouse” to deter Moscow. The bloc would thus become an “arsenal of democracy.” It also involves setting up the European bloc’s own rapid reaction force.

The good thing is that US-led NATO wouldn’t mind it at all – its secretary-general has okayed such a plan, by saying that “I welcome more EU efforts on defense, as long as they are done in a way that doesn’t duplicate or compete with NATO.” There are some factors left out of this equation, namely the risks brought by an escalation of tensions with neighboring Russia, for instance – a country that has been increasingly encircled by the West. But who cares?

Building up European defense capacities is not an easy task, though. In March 2023, I wrote that, despite increases on defense spending, Europe had in fact become more dependent on Washington for security than ever. For one thing, according to Sophia Besch (a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace fellow), and Max Bergmann (a former member of the US Policy Planning Staff and Director of the Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies),  Europe’s military forces are not at all prepared for conventional warfare “in their own backyards”.

Moreover, the aforementioned increases have not amounted to any significant structural change. Such changes would require the European bloc to seek re-industrialization, and the United States itself has steadily undermined any such endeavors. It would also require a bureaucratic framework that Europe lacks and would require European coordination pertaining to the member states procurement systems, not to mention supply chains and production capacities that are just not there.

The truth is that whenever European countries attempt to articulate common industrial policies, Washington intervenes. Besch and Bergmann write for example that, when the EU announced its plans for a European Defense Fund a new weapon system, then US  Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis (under Donald Trump), objected and lobbied for American companies “to have access to the paltry EU funds”.

This has not changed with the current Joe Biden’s presidency, which has made sure the US keeps its access to Europe’s defense market. In the same spirit, I’ve covered elsewhere the topics of the aggressive American subsidy war against Europe and also how US weapons manufacturers profit greatly from the Ukrainian conflict and hold tremendous political influence over that corruption-ridden country.

Not much has changed regarding all the above, since 2023. I’ve also recently argued that the relationship between Washington and its transatlantic European “allies” is colonial in nature – and it remains so, even under the guise of an American “withdrawal” from Europe, or occasionally under the guise of European “strategic autonomy”, if you will. All of that is really about the United States skillfully shifting the Ukrainian conflict’ burden onto the shoulders of Europe, with all the expected impacts on European welfare and standards of living.

And this is so while America still benefits from it – by having ever-more dependent European NATO member states buying American weapons to comply with NATO standards (this also being what Trump’s rhetoric is really about). Moreover, rather than being just the US “pivoting to the Pacific”, it is all about further “proxifying” the American proxy attrition war against Moscow (as Former US ambassador to Finland, Earle Mack described it), by turning Western Europe itself into a full-fledged American proxy.

The problem is that, all things considered, Europe might not even be up for such a task – but in any case, off it goes. It is increasingly expected to bear all the burden and risks. And the European elites cheer such a scenario. It is no wonder political radicalism keeps rising in the continent.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

• OSCE’s Existence In Danger – Europe Might Need A New Security Architecture
• Can Europe Come Back To Its Senses?
• Europe Playing With Fire By Calling For Deep Strikes

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