If Europeans want their ambitions to be taken seriously, they must find ways to deal with the decline in Europe’s military power. Political leaders will have to tell their constituents that there are limits to how much military budgets can be cut, as the “peace dividend” from the Cold War’s end was digested long ago.
如果欧洲认真想实现这一野心的话，他们就必须为不断下滑的军事力量找到解决方案政治领袖必须告诉选民军费是不能无限度削减的，因为冷战结束所节省出来的那部分军费早就花光了。欧洲国家之间必须采取新形式的军事合作以维持其效率。