European Union Unveils New Strategy to Become a Global Power

by Soeren Kern • April 3, 2022 at 5:00 am

The goal is "strategic autonomy" — the ability for the EU to act independently of, and as a counterweight to, the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — in matters of defense and security.
The key component of the Strategic Compass is the development of a so-called EU Rapid Deployment Capacity (RDC), a military force able to intervene in "non-permissive environments" anywhere in the world.
The RDC is to become fully operational by 2025 and commanded by an institution called the "EU Military Planning and Conduct Capability." (The term "capability" is a politically correct substitute for "headquarters," as in "military headquarters.")
The push for Europe to achieve strategic autonomy from the United States is being spearheaded by Macron, who, as part of his reelection campaign, apparently hopes to replace former German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the de facto leader of Europe.
The danger is that many of the pie-in-the-sky policy proposals in the Strategic Compass will divert and drain resources and finances from where they are actually needed: NATO.
A logical course of action would be for EU member states to honor past pledges to increase defense spending as part of their contribution to the transatlantic alliance. That, however, would fly in the face of the folie de grandeur — the delusions of grandeur — of European federalists who dream of transforming the EU into a geopolitical "great power."

The goal of the European Union's new "Strategic Compass" strategy is "strategic autonomy" — the ability for the EU to act independently of, and as a counterweight to, the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — in matters of defense and security. (Image source: EU External Action Service)

The European Union has published a new strategy aimed at transforming the 27-member bloc into an independent geopolitical actor on the world stage.

The long-awaited "Strategic Compass" lays out an ambitious ten-year plan for the EU to develop an autonomous European security architecture. The goal is "strategic autonomy" — the ability for the EU to act independently of, and as a counterweight to, the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — in matters of defense and security.

The greatest advocate of strategic autonomy, French President Emmanuel Macron, said the objective is to make Europe "powerful in the world, fully sovereign, free in its choices and master of its destiny."

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How Putin Misunderstood Rumsfeld

by Amir Taheri • April 3, 2022 at 4:00 am

Putin began by calling it "special operations" so that he would not have to obtain the consent of the Russian Parliament (Duma) to wage war.
This may have been because he expected a quick victory and did not wish to share the glory with anyone.
Putin also refused to name a commander-in-chief of the forces unleashed against Ukraine.
But even if we go by conservative estimates based on Russian official leaks, Putin's army has suffered a 20 percent loss in killed and wounded. This is twice the maximum accepted in classic military doctrines....

Apart from its political impact on the international order, the war that Russia has launched against Ukraine contains countless features that should interest military analysts and planners across the globe. Pictured: Destroyed Russian Army tanks and armored personnel carriers in Dmytrivka, west of Kyiv, on April 2, 2022. (Photo by Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)

This is the first time since World War II that the Russian Army (formerly Soviet Red Army) is tested on the battlefield against a medium-sized adversary in a classical war.

In the 1950s, the Red Army fought border wars with Communist China and managed to annex large chunks of territory across the border. But that was not a full-scale war, as a much weaker China, then also devoid of nuclear weapons, shied away from fighting back in a meaningful way.

Also in the 1950s the Red Army's tanks rolled into Warsaw and Budapest to crush unarmed anti-Communist uprisings. In 1968, the same scenario was played out in Prague, where Russian tanks rolled over the Prague Spring.

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