Beatrice Weder di Mauro
Ever since Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Davos speech, Europe is commonly described as a “middle power.” This is puzzling. Europe’s economy is 10 times larger than Canada’s and comparable in size to those of the United States and China. Collectively, European nations are the world’s second largest defense spender after the US. Even some Europeans have embraced the “middle power” moniker. Why?
First, Europe has been avoiding the truth. Washington has signaled that the era of US security guarantees is ending. Yet much of Europe behaves as if this were a passing phase. Defense plans are drafted on the assumption that the old normal will return, that America will always be there. This is not strategy, it’s wishful thinking. And it postpones the uncomfortable truth that self-reliance cannot be subcontracted.
Calling Europe a middle power is a way of shrinking the problem. It lowers expectations and limits responsibility. It suggests that Europe can stand aside while the real contest unfolds between others. The fantasy of being a “greater Switzerland”—geopolitically peripheral but economically prosperous—is seductive. But Europe isn’t peripheral: It’s where great-power rivalry plays out.
Πηγή: IMF