Blog di discussione su problemi di relazioni e politica internazionale; un osservatorio per capire la direzione del mondo. Blog for discussion on problems of relations and international politics; an observatory to understand the direction of the world.
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mercoledì 14 febbraio 2018
European military integration that does not like the United States
A
new reason for confrontation emerges between the United States and
Europe: that of the arms market in the context of the strengthening of
the Atlantic Alliance. One of the points of Trump's political program is to reduce the military commitment to other states, including allies. For the president of the USA, a lower commitment involves financial savings to be allocated to American growth; starting
from this point Trump has repeatedly urged, above all the European
states, to a greater participation, also economic, to the programs
related to the defense. The
ways in which these solicitations have arrived have not been entirely
diplomatic, even if it must be recognized, that the European attitude
towards defense was based too much on American aid and commitment. The
issue imposed serious reflection on European nations, where the need
for common military programs within the Union was recognized. On
the other hand, this need could also favor the adoption of a common
line in foreign policy and be a decisive factor for the objective of
political union. The
exit of the United Kingdom from Brussels also constituted another
reason to build new instruments able to favor common programs in the
field of defense. Therefore,
having established that the policy of military integration of the Union
was now compulsory, it was necessary to create a fund, financed
annually from the EU budget with a billion euros for armaments and five
hundred million for research in the field. military. The goal is also to involve the contribution of individual states with significant financial contributions. The central point of the project, however, is that to access these funds companies will have to be European. In fact, this represents a closure for the country that is the largest arms producer in the world: the United States. Washington
has openly accused Brussels of protectionism, contradicting the
economic policy inaugurated by Trump at the national level, which is
based precisely on the closure to foreign producers; moreover, the US arms market has always been reserved for local companies. According
to the policy inaugurated by the Union, the United States would lose a
substantial share of the arms market, especially if considered that the
Union will be a market in clear expansion, located in one of the areas
with greater wealth. Within
the Atlantic Alliance, which at the beginning had positively judged the
European plan, we now consider its effects from a different point of
view. If
from the economic point of view the major member of the Alliance will
have a substantial loss, even from the political point of view the
influence of Washington is destined to decrease precisely as hoped for
by Trump: greater military autonomy of the European Union. Potentially
these two added factors, can create an alteration of the internal
balance of the Atlantic Alliance, already endangered by the position of
Turkey, increasingly politically distant from Washigton. It
must however be specified that US military protection is still the most
important part of European defense and that autonomy in this sector can
not be achieved in the short term, even if the funds available are much
more substantial; what
is needed, apart from the war materials, is an effective coordination,
which is still far away, and a level of integration between the various
armed forces of the different countries, which can not be achieved by
well-defined programs in times that are certainly not short. These
considerations expose Europe to a kind of blackmail, which the United
States could implement if they are excluded from the market that is
about to open. The
Union must consider whether to renounce, at least in part, the policies
of military development, which is also an opportunity for technological
research and thus to benefit, in a certain way still of American
protection or to clash with its major ally to arrive at greater autonomy in the defense sector. On
the other hand, the United States will not be able to claim access to
the European military market if it does not assume a reciprocal position
and in any case the European allies are too important in the current
scenario characterized by Russian protagonism and the Chinese role, just
to mention some of the actors on the scene. The
way to go will be the diplomatic one with all the difficulties of the
case, but for Europe the opportunity to create one's own armed force is
unique and obligatory.
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