The NATO Summit and the future of European Defence

NATO members emerged from their summit in Madrid this week having reached consensus on a new Strategic Concept, Sweden’s and Finland’s accession, and increased readiness capabilities on the eastern flank. This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Nick Witney, senior policy fellow at ECFR and former chief executive of the European Defence Agency; Jana Puglierin, head of ECFR’s Berlin office; and Tara Varma, head of ECFR’s Paris office, to evaluate the summit’s outcomes, especially regarding European defence. How can Europeans coordinate increased military expenditure? What is the European Defence Union? And was Nick Witney right to describe the summit as “the most promising conjunction of planets”?  

This podcast was recorded on 1 July 2022.

Further reading 

• NATO’s new Strategic Concept 
• The EU’s Strategic Compass 

Bookshelf 

• The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope 
• Au café de la ville perdue by Anaïs Llobet 
• The NATO summit is chance to wean Europe off US military might by Kelly A. Grieco 
• Machtwechsel by Anna Sauerbrey