Home pagePress CenterIn the Media Guy Ben-Ari, a senior fellow with the CSIS International Security Program, was quoted by the International Herald Tribune, "EU Defense Spending May Clash with Military Goals."
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Guy Ben-Ari, a senior fellow with the CSIS International Security Program, was quoted by the International Herald Tribune, "EU Defense Spending May Clash with Military Goals."
European Union countries may have been deploying more troops abroad in recent years, but a new analysis questions whether the EU's goal of becoming a major defense and security player can be met when military spending among the 27 actually declined from 2001 to 2006.
The report, released this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, coincides with a major American reassessment of EU defense and security policy under which Washington would support a more muscular EU, provided that European defense spending was sufficient for a radical improvement in military capabilities on this side of the Atlantic.
"Largely for political reasons, the EU member states cannot have any large increases in defense spending," Guy Ben-Ari, one of the authors of the analysis published in Washington, said in an interview. "There are other pressing priorities - for example, social welfare programs - and particularly against the background of aging populations."
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions; accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in these publications should be understood to be solely those of the authors.
