Western Europe has long been a fractious place with war a near constant for millennia. And its three leading powers have generally been in the thick of it. France and England have been warring practically since they became England and France. From the Norman invasion of England in 1066 through the Hundred Years’ War, colonial rivalry that included the Seven Years’ War and the Napoleonic Wars, to the Second World War when the British supported the Free French against the Vichy government.
Germany has been engaged in conflicts with Great Britain and France since its creation as a state in 1871, against the French in the Franco-Prussian War and then against both in two World Wars.
Since the end of the Second World War they have developed amicable relations and indeed become close friends and allies. For most of this period they have been members of the European Union, a political and economic union of like-minded states. In 2016 Britain opted out, a decision it came to regret and it is now attempting to inch its way back in.
They have allied over security as well. The three are leading members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a collective defence agreement in which if one ally is attacked, all other members are obligated to assist it.
The three states no longer believe, however, that NATO is adequate to dealing with an imperialistic Russia while the mainstay of the treaty falters. The United States has indicated in no uncertain terms it expects more from its allies, assuming they are still allies given the erratic and impulsive nature of its new president. Even the president’s commitment to the treaty’s principles of democratic government are now somewhat in question. Furthermore, he has unnerved some allies by hinting at imperial designs on two fellow treaty members.
Britain, France and Germany’s leaders are, as a result, building new diplomatic and defence partnerships as they keep a wary eye on their longtime ally. The idea is not to replace NATO but rather to create parallel arrangements that are more agile than the bureaucratic 32-member treaty and less dependent on the U.S.
Prime Minister Starmer of Britain and President Macron of France recently agreed to coordinate their nuclear arsenals. And PM Starmer and Chancellor Merz of Germany have signed a new treaty for mutual defence and economic cooperation. (One suspects Starmer’s agreements with his two allies are in part to repair the harm done by Brexit.)
The three leaders have formed a “coalition of the willing” in support of Ukraine’s fight against Russia that will be headquartered in Paris. Plans for a Europe-led peacekeeping force in Ukraine are underway.
Upon signing the new agreement—the “Kensington Treaty”— with Britain, Chancellor Merz said, “The European security architecture and the trans-Atlantic ties are undergoing a far-reaching transformation like we’ve not seen for a very long time. And it is under these new conditions that it is our aim to secure the freedom, the security and the prosperity of the people of both our countries.” The chancellor has vowed to dramatically increase spending on the German military.
Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, says that the leaders “see themselves increasingly as pillars of European security, at a time of less America—or even no America—in Europe.”
Not everyone will be pleased to see Western Europe gearing up for war, particularly Germany with its history of Prussian militarism. Personally, I despair at what seems to be a global rearmament.
Nonetheless, Western Europeans liberating themselves from American security dependency is overdue. And seeing these three nations, who have engaged in such bloodshed in the past, cozying up to defend themselves and their neighbours—and democracy—is an encouraging sight.