Apr. 28, 2025 |
Europe’s new war machine. Ever since World War II reduced so much of the European continent to rubble, its people and their leaders have been vastly opposed to war and militarism of any kind.
All that’s changing now.
Across the European Union, countries are announcing increases in defense spending and new arms production. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte says Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Italy have all submitted much larger defense budgets. Just this Tuesday, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said Madrid would invest an extra €10.5 billion in defense this year, so the country could meet the NATO target for member states to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense.
Germany meanwhile has raised defense spending by almost 80 percent since 2020, with a budget of more than €90bn in 2024. In March, the European Commission announced a Readiness 2030 security plan, for which it’s set aside €800 billion for national and pan-European defense projects over the next five years.
In the U.K., the arms manufacturer BAE has started building several new sites for weapons production. It’s developing new types of munitions, too.
Why is this happening?
—Michael Bluhm
