Since the election of Donald Trump as US President America’s traditional allies are suffering one shock after another. Trump has also been asking NATO member states to either pay up their share in the partnership or the US will back out of such organizations. The alarmed European states are now restrategizing, thinking of avenues beyond the safety umbrella of the US and are now exploring the idea of having its own European Army.
After repeated warnings from Macron, Starmer, and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas who also noted that ministers were left “worried” by the recent changes in US foreign policy. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares has now reiterated this stand claiming that Europe should now develop its rapid deployment forces into the nucleus of the bloc’s own army.
“The threat is European and therefore the response has to be European,” Albares said. The diplomat said he would urge the EU Foreign Affairs Council to reflect on how to boost the continent’s defense capacity.
“Capabilities that must include the ability to have rapid deployment forces that could even be the embryo of a European army,” Albares said. The bloc also needs to achieve “strategic autonomy” and further develop its domestic defense industry and logistics, he added.
EU states agreed to develop a Rapid Deployment Capacity (RDC) in 2022, after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. The measure was envisioned as a coordinated framework of rapid response forces to allow the bloc to quickly react to crisis situations, and was projected to be able to deploy up to 5,000 troops by this year, according to the European Commission.
The European Army
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron, who has floated the idea of a unified European army, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky had also suggested last month that Kiev’s forces could form the basis of “an army of Europe,” as “decades of the old relationship between Europe and America are ending” and “Europe needs to adjust.” He stated that Ukraine is currently “holding back Russia” from attacking other European countries.
“Let’s be honest. Now we can’t rule out the possibility that America might say no to Europe on an issue that threatens it. Many, many leaders have talked about Europe that needs its own military – an army of Europe.” he said.
Trump has been actively moving away from the funding of Ukraine for its long drawn clash against Russia. Trump has also slowly been backing away from US’ European commitments and has now adopted a policy of America First where US funds are used exclusively for the American people as he continues cutting down on all the frivolous external fundings of the US state. Trump has already been taking on the USAID fundings and his DOGE department under Musk has been cutting wasteful spending in the state.
However now he European nations are left extremely rattled, without the overt US military, financial economic and geopolitical aid they are left to fend for themselves. The European Army is now an idea for the European nations to come together and attempt to safeguard their own interests. Not just for Russia but maybe in the future from the US as well, as was seen when Trump began his push for taking control of Greenland, a move that sent shockwaves in Europe.
Now Europe realizes they are on their own and their defence is their own responsibility, which means they now have to spend billions of dollars to make their own army, make weapons and develop their own alliances to build a European army to defend their own interests. Since the end of the second world war Europe has had the option of falling back to the US in any crisis, now without Washington in their corner how they will manage and recreate their own defence strategies only time will tell. The idea of the European Army and its execution will go a long way in telling whether such experiments will be a success or will end up falling completely flat.