Europe

摘要

Since the economic and financial crisis hit Europe in 2008, the capability challenge facing European nations has been out in the open and increasingly well understood by NATO and EU member states: there will be a growing gap between security demand and capability supply. Not least because of the re-orientation of US defence policy towards the Asia-Pacific, European governments will need to assume a greater share of the burden for international security, particularly in Europe's fragile vicinity to the south and the east, at a time when defence spending is shrinking. The multinational level of ambition, as expressed in EU and NATO strategic guidance, has remained largely unchanged, while leaders recognise that they face an increasingly complex security environment. Syria also exposed another side to the capability challenge: the need for governments to define a convincing narrative for the continued use of armed forces in crisis management.