The question of whether Europe should develop its own defence capabilities has acquired a new urgency. Failing states and civil wars in Europe's neighbourhood, cyber attacks, Russia, jihadists - these are only a few of the growing threats to peace and freedom. In the face of that, both NATO Europe and EU Europe are hampered by a kind of small-state particularism. We Europeans urgently need more military integration, as well as islands of functional cooperation. Individual examples of this have long been with us. They have gradually been amalgamating and forming a mainland. But at national level, resistance remains stubborn, even in Germany and France. In this book, Hans-Peter Bartels sets out his vision of how the project of a European army may be realised.

Hans-Peter Bartels, geb. 1961, Dr. phil., war 1998-2015 SPD-Bundestagsabgeordneter, zuletzt Vorsitzender des Verteidigungsausschusses, und ist gegenwärtig Wehrbeauftragter des Deutschen Bundestages. Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen zu sicherheitspolitischen Fragen. Bei Dietz erschienen: Strategische Autonomie und die Verteidigung Europas (2017).