Publication

The creation of Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) in December 2017 crowned a series of recent debates and actions aimed at strengthening the EU’s common security and defense policy. However, Justyna Gotkowska argues that the compromise around PESCO has revealed strategic divergences among France, Germany and Poland related to the perceptions of threats, EU security and defense policy, and trans-Atlantic relations. Further, the debates on PESCO have highlighted the growing gap between European political narratives and the realities of European military capability deficiencies as well as the US’ military presence on the continent. (Image courtesy of the European Parliament/Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)