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The Russian invasion of Ukraine increased the acute need for a stronger European foreign defence policy, argues HCSS director of policital affairs Han ten Broeke in this essay. This should come about as soon as possible, not just because of a possible re-election of Donald Trump, but also because of the autocrats within NATO and the EU. Even if President Joe Biden is re-elected to the White House, there is need for a European pillar under NATO.
In his essay, Ten Broeke sets out an agenda for the EU, not “to become a superstate” but an aspiring “superpower”, as EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen put it. The author discusses some of the actions and reforms that must be taken after the European elections in June 2024, and shows what an integrated EU foreign and defence policy should look like.
Han ten Broek is a former Dutch MP (2006-2018) for the Dutch conservative-liberal VVD and was a spokesman of foreign affairs and the chairman of the armed services committee and leader of the Dutch delegation to the NATO assembly during my time in parliament. Currently, he is Director of Political Affairs at the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) in The Hague.
As a defense policy expert, Han ten Broeke spoke out very early on in favor of increased defense efforts by the Europeans, not against NATO and the USA, but as an addition. As a European pillar of NATO, so to speak. He has substantiated this perspective in the attached article in an analytical manner: more European efforts, more European coordination, more joint armament projects, but not a European army per se.
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