Beneath the rhetoric of defending democracy, a more uncomfortable reality drives the rearmament push: the fraying of the transatlantic bond
3-MIN READ3-MIN ListenTian ShichenPublished: 8:30pm, 16 Mar 2026With the Middle East ablaze and war in Ukraine showing no sign of respite, a stark new consensus is hardening in Paris, London and Berlin that Europe must rearm.
But a fundamental question remains unaddressed: will a larger defence budget actually solve Europe’s security crisis? Before a single euro is spent on new hardware, Europe must first identify the actual source of its threats. Strategy, after all, is not about procurement; it is about political purpose.
