{"id":59225,"date":"2017-12-11T01:05:07","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T01:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2017\/12\/11\/friends-of-europe-founder-europes-weak-and-outdated-armed-forces-should-draw-from-chinas-model\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T16:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:16:18","slug":"friends-of-europe-founder-europes-weak-and-outdated-armed-forces-should-draw-from-chinas-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/outlook\/2017\/12\/11\/friends-of-europe-founder-europes-weak-and-outdated-armed-forces-should-draw-from-chinas-model\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends of Europe founder: Europe\u2019s weak and outdated armed forces should draw from China\u2019s model"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s tempting to take European governments\u2019 latest commitment to strengthening their defense and security efforts with a pinch of salt. The alphabet soup of programs and pledges that makes up the European Union\u2019s Security Union has just seen the addition of a new ingredient in the shape of the long-awaited PESCO, or Permanent Structured Cooperation. Nicknamed by some the \u201cSleeping Beauty\u201d of European defense collaboration, it is advertised as ushering in a new era of shared policy objectives and stronger military muscle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe this time EU governments mean it; the pressures of Russian assertiveness to the north as well as conflict and chaos on Europe\u2019s southern flanks could at last be awakening them to the fact that America\u2019s nuclear umbrella no longer offers shelter from 21st century threats \u2015 least of all when U.S. President Donald Trump casts doubt over the value of the NATO alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/outlook\/\" class=\"selected-link\" title=\"\">Outlook 2018: Perspectives from global thought leaders<\/a><\/b><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is nevertheless hard to take PESCO at face value. It is almost 20 years since Europeans promised a far more determined approach to defense. Onboard the British destroyer HMS Birmingham in the Brittany port of St. Malo, the U.K. and France signed a defense cooperation pact intended both to beef up their own collaboration while showing other European members of NATO that it was time to stop being free riders at the expense of the U.S. defense budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Following that, initiatives to boost Europe\u2019s defense capabilities waxed but then waned. Despite many ambitious promises and some determined political moves to boost PESCO\u2019s counterpart, the EU\u2019s Common Security and Defence Policy, the bottom line on Europe\u2019s defense spending has gone deeper into the red. From 2012-2016, EU member states\u2019 collective defense budgets shrunk by a 10th. Those of China and India, meanwhile, rose by 40 percent and 30 percent, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In truth, it\u2019s not the amount of money that matters, but what it\u2019s spent on. Four-fifths of Europe\u2019s substantial 2016 outlay on defense of more than \u20ac200 billion (U.S. $237 billion in today\u2019s figures) went on personnel and administrative costs. Analysts warn that only 2 percent of Europe\u2019s 2 million men and women in uniform (counting paramilitary police forces) can be deployed in a combat role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Worse still, European generals have been preparing to fight the last war by clinging to the tanks, artillery and supersonic aircraft of the 20th century. Just as PESCO was being rolled out in Brussels, the top brass of Britain\u2019s Army, Air Force and Navy were telling a House of Commons committee in Westminster that thanks to successive budget cuts, their forces are today \u201c20 years out of date.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How the U.K.\u2019s armed forces will fit into Europe\u2019s defense arrangements after Brexit \u2015 Britain\u2019s divorce from the EU \u2015 is still anyone\u2019s guess. What is certain, though, is that Britain and France are the only two European nations with substantial military clout. They together account for almost half the EU\u2019s total defense spending. But both have been severely diminished by decades of cutbacks. So in reality, the EU\u2019s shiny, new security policies rest on very shaky foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The answer is clearly to reshape Europe\u2019s capabilities and outreach to suit its new challenges. Planners in the EU should therefore embrace technologies best suited to asymmetric conflicts. So far, Europe\u2019s generals have generally downplayed or even ignored innovative weapons systems, especially those based on drones, and have also been slow to switch spending to cyber defenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The way ahead is being pointed to by none other than China. Derided for many years as overly reliant on its huge manpower reserves, China is moving into the forefront of drone technology. In June of this year, it demonstrated a swarm of 120 interconnected drones that operate as a wolf pack rather than individually. This may well signal a revolution in military tactics and organization. To underline the point, Beijing is planning reductions in its military personnel of 300,000 by 2018. That\u2019s something that Europe\u2019s expensively maintained but undereffective armed forces might wish to emulate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>Giles Merritt is the founder and chairman of the think tank Friends of Europe.<\/i><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In truth, Europe, it\u2019s not the amount of money that matters, but on what you spend it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":115906,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":18,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[66,160,46,11,36,17,18],"tags":[8592,8613],"coauthors":[4469],"class_list":["post-59225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-daily-news-roundup","category-europe","category-global","category-newsletters","category-opinion","category-outlook","tag-china","tag-france"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HP6AH3XNV5BD5DU3ABD64RMDAI","arc_canonical_url":"\/outlook\/2017\/12\/11\/friends-of-europe-founder-europes-weak-and-outdated-armed-forces-should-draw-from-chinas-model\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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