Europe: doctrinal shift towards violence

In March 2025, army chiefs of more than 30 Western countries met in Paris. They urged Europe to be ready for war, and to operate without US support if needed. Two of army chiefs - Gen Knighton of the UK and Gen Breuer of Germany - called for Europe to rearm rapidly and for the European public to accept preparation for war. Gen Fabien of France said "war is no longer hypothetical; it's plausible within this decade". NATO's chief Mark Rutte, while framing Russia as a direct long-term threat, said Europe is already "in harm's way".

As part of the EU's Readiness 2030 initiative, up to €800 billion will be mobilised for defence; joint procurement and defence industry expansion are being accelerated; Finland, Estonia, Norway, Greece, Switzerland already have mandatory military service; and border militarisation has increased with more surveillance and troop mobility.

Europe is not just preparing for independent European defence capability; it's rebuilding its defence industrial base - its shifting towards a war-economy.

Last month German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius unveiled Germany's strategy for becoming Europe's strongest military by 2039, with 460,000 combat-ready troops. Titled 'Verantwortung für Europa' i.e. Responsibility for Europe, the strategy also marks a doctrinal shift toward a 'one theater approach', treating NATO territory, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific as interconnected security spaces rather than discrete theaters.

A month earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron had presented his 'Forward Deterrence' strategy with a new nuclear strategy. France will increase its nuclear warheads and allow temporary deployment of French nuclear-armed Rafale jets to allied European countries like Germany, Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden and Denmark to bolster security.

The latest reviewed British Defence Doctrine also calls for integration with allies; need for agile, joint and multinational integrated operations; investing in British-based firms for defence technology; and the Manoeuvrist Approach to disrupt enemy's cohesion rather than just focusing on physical destruction.

These doctrinal shifts point to the fact that European states want to take the responsibility of war in their own hands now, and that the passive approach of relying on a disregarding and exclusionist US has ended. But does this also not mean that the era of Europe's 'liberal democracy', wherein the individual was the prime focus and whose path was nothing but his/her individual pursuit of happiness, is over? Now, quoting Rutte, Europe "must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured"; and quoting Gen Fabien, "we have to accept losing our children."

Foreseeing Russia's attack on Europe, which according to Rutte will be within the next five years, there has been an element of urgency. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have signed a $4.7 billion deal, under which Ukraine will produce low-cost drones and missiles for Germany, and Germany will share software and modern defence systems with Ukraine. A similar 'Drone Deal' is being finalised between Italy and Ukraine too. Not only this, Zelensky is signing 'drone deals' with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and the Netherlands too.

So, let's review this. Before the Ukraine War, the EU and NATO had made regime change attempts in several pro-Soviet states, like the Rose Revolution in Georgia (2003) and Orange Revolution in Ukraine (2004). Every time Russia protested but could do nothing. More and more states from post-Soviet space were being admitted into the EU and NATO. But when it came to Belarus and Ukraine, Russia drew a redline and said it would intervene militarily because NATO was encircling it and was literally going for militarisation along its boarders. In fact, it was Europe that wanted to corner and attack Russia, not the other way around.

Stubborn as it was, Europe pursued Ukraine's admission into NATO even when it knew that this would result in the destruction of Ukraine and the displacement of millions of Ukrainians. Even now Europe is constantly pumping Zelensky to carry on with an unwinnable war that will delay the country's reconstruction forever, despite knowing that it can't defeat Russia. Rather, Europe's solution for Ukraine seems to be to make it a 'military state' to produce weapons and rent its troops for future wars that Europe or its Middle East clients would demand.

Rather, Europe is choosing 'war economy' as the solution to its crumbling economy. At the European Industry Summit in February, Belgian PM Bart De Wever warned, "We are on the brink of an existential crisis". Elaborating, he said, "Energy prices, competitiveness, dumping and regulatory pressure" had pushed parts of European industry to the brink, and "if Europe wants to matter in the world, our industry must first matter to Europe."

But no, why think humanely, why have sagacity - if Europe can't compete, why not go for wars and destroy the competition!

Is this what Europe will yield, after centuries of scientific thinking, after industrialisation, liberalism and feminism! After all the lectures on human rights, freedom and democracy, is Europe making a turn towards pre-colonial adventurism, which was brute, barbaric, murderous and genocidal!

Was the free-market open competition there only until it suited the white collar and blue tie politico-economic elite of the West! Till the profits were pouring in and till humanity was economically subservient, the West was the loudest advocate of free-market; but when it could not compete, it started talking about protectionism. Now they're telling their own people to prepare to sacrifice their lives so that the market and political elite of Europe can regain a global hegemony they have become habitual of. The bad habit of power and control, like any drug, is hard to give up, but carrying it on is also suicidal, because the crumbling body cannot sustain the load of pure ecstasy that is merely eating up whatever is remaining.

The right thing for you to do is to admit your failures, decrease hourly wages in your countries, bring back industry and re-enter the market. Decades back, the US was the core and China and the Global South were the periphery. Everyone toed the line, accepted capitalism and followed the system. Now, when China is rising and the Global South has consolidated, the US and the West are being pushed to the periphery. So now they want to break the system and remake it. But the remaking is sadly based on wars, chaos and destruction, and humanity needs to save itself from another era of misery, carnage and degression.