flashlight europe 07/2018: Security as common good

Shortly before the Nato summit scheduled for 11-12 July, US President Donald Trump criticized that the EU was “set up to take advantage of the US”. He has a point there. Since 1989 and the end of the Cold War, Europeans have been profiting from the so called “peace dividend” and cut their deficit spending far beyond the agreed 2 percent of GDP. Is Europe ready to take his fate in his own hands, to quote Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel? The moment is advantageous, as our author Joachim Fritz-Vannahme argues, since both politicians in their speeches as well as citizens in the polls, are asking for more security as a common good. This agreement should open new doors to financing a true European security policy.