The debacle in Afghanistan changed the rhetoric

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The spirits have moved a little since, since Mr. Macron has sought to reassure his friends that his idea is not to replace but to complete the transatlantic alliance. Even so, just last year, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the German Defense Minister, wrote bluntly that “the illusions of European strategic autonomy must end”. In Britain, meanwhile, Mr Macron’s appeals have been ignored as irrelevant for an island nation newly free to forge its own global role. Pooling European sovereignty over defense was something Brexit was meant to avoid.

Tom Tugendhat, a curator deputy who served in Afghanistan, urged Britain “to make sure we don’t depend on a single ally,” naming France and Germany as potential partners. Ben Wallace, the British Secretary of Defense, suggested that his armed forces should be ready to “join different coalitions and not depend on a single nation”. He didn’t need to say which one. “We have all been humiliated in the same way by Americans,” says a British diplomat, who underlines a common interest in making sure this does not happen again. For Germany, timid in conflict, Afghanistan was a formative experience. The disappointment was hurtful. Armin Laschet, the Conservative candidate for German chancellery, described the withdrawal as “the greatest debacle to have NATO has known since its foundation ”.

In short, Europe seems to realize that it will have to do more job function email database on its own. Whether skeptics understand it or not, this is exactly what Mr Macron said, and will repeat it in a speech ahead of France’s rotating presidency. EU Advice in 2022. No one, but no one, will say it out loud. But the implicit recognition is that, damn then, Mr. Macron was right.

To arms, Europeans
Two big questions for Europeans, however, arise from this puzzling thought, and there are no easy answers to either. First, what do we really mean by “European sovereignty” or “strategic autonomy” in Europe? Most countries pledge to spend more on defense, although Germany (unlike Britain and France) still falls short of the targets. NATO 2% benchmark GDP. Beyond that, there is little clarity, let alone agreement, not least because Brexit has not put Britain in the mood to work institutionally with the EU.