, Columnist
Europe Has a $3 Trillion Defense Dilemma Worthy of Hamlet
To ramp up military spending, or vanish is the question for Europe in the age of Trump.
NATO training in Romania this month.
Photographer: Bloomberg/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
“To be, or not to be.” That’s how French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou sums up Europe’s dilemma as Donald Trump threatens to abandon the continent’s existing security arrangements – which it spent the best part of a century leading – and Vladimir Putin presses his advantage in Ukraine ceasefire talks where Europeans have no seat. All the while, cyberattacks and threats to critical infrastructure mount from Italy to Iceland.
One might rephrase this choice as: to ramp up military spending or let the union vanish into irrelevance.