European militarism on steroids is not good, either
Published by Responsible Statecraft
“[…] this approach puts the cart of military-spending-as-share-of-GDP before the horse of a dynamic assessment of the threats European countries actually face. Going on a spending spree to reach some arbitrary share of GDP or random number of billions of euros, to buy weapons systems favored by lobbyists but of dubious relevance, is a poor replacement for a comprehensive strategy for European security.
A European security strategy that deserves this name would have to include political and diplomatic efforts: war-ending diplomacy in the short term, followed by a crisis consultation mechanism that should be the beginning of a new European security architecture consisting of reciprocal regimes of arms control, confidence-building and eventual disarmament. […]”
Read the entire piece, published on 03/12/2025 by the Quincy Institute’s Responsible Statecraft website.