Forum: Towards a European Nuclear Deterrent

Abstract

America’s potential strategic disengagement from Europe is leading key European powers–in particular, France, the United Kingdom and Germany–to reconsider the role of nuclear weapons in European security in the absence of extended US nuclear deterrence. Here leading French, British and German analysts offer anticipatory assessments of their countries’ national perceptions, policies and preferences with respect to formulating a common European approach. They discuss, respectively, France’s tentative overture to its European allies, Britain’s willingness against broad constraints, and the tension between Germany’s entrenched caution and its rising threat perceptions. While there are options that could produce a viable European nuclear deterrent, they would require a degree of national flexibility and European financial support that is currently difficult to imagine. This reality check should give European nuclear hawks pause.