The EU And NATO Become Irrelevant: Europe Succumbs to Softness

The word has been out on the financial status of the European Union for some time now. Struggling countries sought handouts from more productive ones. The EU, as a body, lately has seemed to be on the ropes. Even still, a body of nations known for its extravagant social programs and government subsidies has shown little regard at spending reforms. Outside of slow, incremental changes over a long a long period of time, the vaunted welfare system has become so deeply entrenched within the political system that it is practically a nonnegotiable item (what we would call the “third rail”). And the citizens of these countries have no qualms in reminding their governments of that fact. To show their opposition to domestic spending reforms, massive strikes have shutdown cities’ entire transportation systems, schools of have locked their doors, entire city blocks remained closed for business, while farmers have taken produce from their fields by the truck loads and dumped it in city streets.

So the governments of the EU must look elsewhere for cuts which will show the least amount of possible fallout: National Defense. Though it means very little there, to us here in the US, it’s starting to look like they have hit that well one too many times. Not only are they in danger of becoming an irrelevant power in world affairs, they are putting an increased burden on the United States and greatly undermining NATO and Western defense.

BERLIN – First, Germany announced that it would suspend its draft, ending one of the touchstones of its post-World War II society. Then Britain and France, frequent rivals since at least the Norman Conquest, announced plans to share military equipment and research. And smaller countries across Europe are cutting defense budgets and shrinking militaries that were never large to begin with.

European policymakers say that the cuts are necessary given their financial straits, and that training, not sheer numbers, is what matters in a post-Cold War world.

But some top officials, including the U.S. defense secretary and the NATO secretary general, worry that the changes could burden the United States by reducing the number of European troops available for NATO missions and other military efforts around the world. NATO’s ability to function as a collective defense pact may be hobbled, they say.

The depth of the concerns was on display this month at a security conference in Munich, where instead of talking about Egypt – the situation at the forefront of many American minds – Germany’s defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, gave an impassioned speech defending his cuts. The NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, followed by warning that the budget decreases across the continent could have dire consequences. (Washington Post)

This isn’t breaking news, of course. I’ve followed European defense spending in the past and have written about this before.

These trends are telling us in clear language that European influence in the world is being threatened by its own selfishness and desire for leisure at the expense of the future. Nowhere can this be best illustrated then it its dwindling defense spending. This greatly weakens its ability to be a military power partnered up with the United States, and to project influence and Western ideals abroad. Their protectionist and smug outlook on the world will further cause their decline. The U.K. for example now spends just 2.2 percent of its GDP on defense. That is the the lowest it has been since the 1930s, and even less than other EU partners such as France. But, together the the two countries accounted for nearly half of all defense expenditures in the EU during 2008!

The leaders of Europe have acquiescence to their people’s spoiled behavior of leisure and early retirement. Unwilling to lead, they chose to surrender while free riding off of American strength. Cutting defense spending does not aid economic recovery or free up more capital in the near term. In fact, defense spending serves as a wonderful stimulus and a creator of high paying jobs. The EU’s problem isn’t defense spending or armies that are too large. When really it is what we are beginning to learn here; it is runaway public entitlements.