This Stimson Center piece asks a question that cuts straight through European slogans: what is the EU actually going to be in the US-led security order? Europe wants to sound like an autonomous strategic actor, but the reality is messier. The EU depends on American power, NATO capabilities, and US intelligence, while trying to build its own defence identity at the same time. The article suggests Europe is being squeezed into a security role shaped in Washington, not Brussels – and Europe’s internal divisions make it even harder to respond with clarity.

This Stimson Center Trialogue episode with Glenn Diesen is a bleak diagnosis of Europe’s trajectory. The argument is not that Europe faces one single crisis – it’s that the continent is being pulled apart by multiple forces at once: the Ukraine war, US strategic dominance, economic decline, and a security mindset that is turning Scandinavia and Europe into a militarised frontline. Europe wants to look united and strong, but the discussion paints a continent losing independence, losing stability, and possibly losing the EU project itself.

This Institut Montaigne piece argues that Europe is being forced into an uncomfortable choice it has spent years trying to dodge. The EU talks endlessly about “strategic autonomy”, but in reality it remains squeezed between America’s hard power and China’s economic pull. The article’s message is blunt – autonomy is not a slogan, it is a cost. And Europe has not paid it. Faced with Beijing’s rise and Washington’s pressure, the EU cannot keep pretending it can have full independence without major compromises.

This ECFR analysis argues the EU is facing a historic choice on enlargement – either move fast and bring in new members amid rising geopolitical tension, or risk losing influence and credibility on its borders. But the text also makes clear this is not a clean victory story. Enlargement is turning into a high-risk gamble, because the EU’s own machinery is slow, its politics are fragile, and its institutions are already under strain. Brussels wants a “big bang” moment. The danger is that the EU may not survive the shock.