Welfare: Bad For America, Good For Europe? Posted by Michael Cohen

Andrew Exum makes a wry observation about European security.

Here's the way this read in today's Washington Post: “The Americans have the numbers of planes, and the Americans have the right equipment,” said Francois Heisbourg, a military specialist at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris.

Here's the way this should have read in today's Washington Post: “The Americans have the numbers of planes [because the European states neglected to buy them], and the Americans have the right equipment [because the Americans actually designed and then manufactured the right equipment],” said Francois Heisbourg, a military specialist at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris.

Andrew goes on to note that Europe should "either stop talking so tough regarding military interventions or to re-invest in truly independent military capabilities."

But why should they? After all, European governments know they can rely on US military might and taxpayer dollars to subsidize their security needs and prevent them from actually investing in a more robust security apparatus. And when European leaders like Sarkozy decide to talk tough they can count on America to provide the military muscle to back up their words - as has been the case with Libya.

The bottom line is that as long as the United States continues to feel that it has an obligation to underwrite European security needs . . . it will continue to underwrite European security needs. And European countries will continue to free ride off of US security guarantees and not develop the "right equipment" and strategy to protect and further their own interests. In the world's most most stable and prosperous region we have created a bizarre situation where US resources and arms are underpinning a security structure that could quite easily be taken over by the inhabitants of that region!

As my good friend Sean Kay notes, "The most fundamental missions of NATO are achieved - Europe is integrated, whole, and free. The challenge now is to ensure that this is sustained via the European Union. By jealously hanging onto an irrelevant dominance over European security policy, the United States hinders effective EU security integration and ironically damages America's own interests. If the United States can't hand over lead authority in Europe where can it?"

Precisely. The Libya engagement provides many lessons for policymakers (few of them good) but this is one that is likely receiving less attention than it should. So long as the United States insists on subsidizing European security we're going to be the ones upholding European security interests - and well past the point when that makes any sense at all.

Comments

[DJF]

Multigenerational welfare has been shown to have a terrible negative effect on families, multigenerational warfare welfare seems to have had the same effect on countries.

For example the Europeans put a huge effort into trying to get the US to buy hundreds of EADS tankers while they only bought a token amount for themselves and so today the US has to supply tanker aircraft to the Europeans so they can operate in Libya, a country on the borders of Europe.

It also breeds delusions of capability, both in the US and in Europe which then causes some Europeans (British and French in this case) to make commitments they don’t have the resources to carry out and for the US to make the commitment to turn over to the Europeans when they don’t have the capability to carry it out. In the case of Libya it might only be a local disaster, but in other places it could become a disaster that has wide ranging effects.

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[冷夜]

an security needs. And European countries will

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[Don Bacon]

Tell me again how Libya underwrites European security needs.

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