Geopolitical Europe Pulse: European defence industry levelling up?

06 December 2024

Earlier this year, the European Union published the Defence Industrial Strategy, which aims at strengthening Europe’s capabilities and production. What has happened since then, how are Europeans doing on defence spending, and what can we expect for the future? This edition of the Geopolitical Europe Pulse brings you a roundup of content on the hot topics related to the European defence industry.

New numbers are out. The European Defence Agency (EDA) has published its estimates for 2024 EU defence spending earlier this week — noting an increase by 30% from 2021. All information here.

Institutional adaptation: EDA, NSPA, OCCAR, EU, NATO, PESCO, EDIS, EDITB… lost in EU defence industrial alphabet soup? Over the years, Europeans have created a lot of institutions and instruments involved in defence industrial matters — and as this Clingendael Policy Brief (by Dick Zandee and Roman de Baedts) argues, this institutional landscape “offers enough scope for steering the European defence industry to ramp up its production”. Their brief explains how this could be done.

A second Trump presidency… bad news for the European defence industrial base: That’s the argument by Lucas F. Hellemeier in this article in War on the Rocks, in which he describes the almost paradoxical effect of the US elections. Although they clearly imply less commitment of the United States to European security, the result might prompt Europeans to opt for more European defence “made in America” and buy American — instead of strengthening their own defence industrial base.