Trends of military-political development in Europe and of military-technical cooperation between the EU member states

Abstract

The article analyzes in the time frame of the coming decade (2020–2030) the main trends in the development of the military and political situation in Europe. New nuclear risks arising from the weakening of the WMD non-proliferation regime, the dismantling of the INF Treaty and the prospects for the deployment of new generations of medium- and short-range missiles in Europe are being considered. The EU's successes and failures over the past three decades in establishing a system of EU operations and missions in conflict regions have been systematized. The structure, types, purpose of the 47 projects of military-technical and military-political cooperation implemented by the European Union within the framework of the EU Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) are analyzed. Groups of projects aimed at strengthening cooperation in the crisis response, at the development and production of weapons, at mastering information- and cyber-communications, logistics and medical cooperation, and at training activities are identified. The strengthening of Europe's geostrategic autonomy from the United States is noted, as well as the military-technical rather than military-operational emphasis within the PESCO programs, the absence of projects aimed directly at conducting collective offensive operations. Conclusions are drawn regarding the dangers of involving the CSTO indirect confrontation with NATO and the EU, the need to establish cooperation along the CSTO-EU line in confronting new common risks and challenges that are endangering both the east and west of Europe. There has been a transformation of many programs of military-technical and military-operational cooperation/integration of EU countries into the basis for new directions of the arms race in Europe.