Carl Johan von Seth: That’s why Trump’s shock policy has created a European Hajp

Europe has woken up. With gravel in the eyes and rising panic in their eyes, European leaders are now groping for security policy independence.

It also leads them in a new economic direction.

Most of the Germany, which accounts for a quarter of the EU’s overall economy. After last week’s rapid decisions in the Federal Council, Germany’s constitutional debt brake has been disconnected. The road is open to huge loans to the country’s defense and infrastructure.

The extra money corresponds to almost all of Sweden’s annual GDP. A defense and fiscal Big Bang for Europe.

The stock exchanges have met The bang with applause. The restructuring of Europe’s defense and attitude to deficit policy is so extensive that it is not just the weapons shares that rise.

It is almost possible to talk about a European shark. And the United States is pointing down at the same time.

What kind of substance is there in that?

One does not always need Combat to it. Higher expenses and larger budget deficits simply generate a stimulation in European economy. There will be more growth, more jobs, more sales, more corporate gains. Especially rolling for the limping German industry.

The stock exchange: up.

But beyond this short mechanical perspective, there are also more strategic hopes. That Europe’s economy should be stimulated deeper. Perhaps the EU has got a chance to finally get into the collar and achieve all that we have long envied the United States.

The dream is a French iPhone, a new Google in Hanover or a Polish chatgpt. More Silicon Valley and not just the old engineering industry (which, ironically, is Donald Trump’s United States envy Europe).

Such a scenario requires, To put it carefully, a more advanced mindset.

At the same time, it is not perfectly insane to draw a line between the tech companies and the weapons industry. Silicon Valley was not born from the US military -industrial complex, but it was definitely bottled by the state.

The first real customers of the American microchip industry were NASA and the military. Only the minute-man II missiles consumed one fifth of all the country’s microchip around 1965.

In 1958, the prestigious military research body Darpa was also founded, which often claims that it is their technology that has created the Internet, among other things. The entire Cold War served as growth hormone for the American tech wonder. So it is clear that there is an indirect link between US historical military ambitions and companies such as Facebook.

There is also one Other close historical parallel to what is now happening in Europe. We are not the first of the United States allies that have been threatened by defense policy full -reversals.

In 1969, President Richard Nixon threatened to fold down the US security policy umbrella and withdraw the troop presence from South Korea, which was then pressed by an aggressive North Korea. The « Nixon shock » forced a drastic reset of South Korean security policy. The economic strategy was also redone.

South Korea bet hard among Other in the chemistry industry, with the goal of building its own production of ammunition. Oxford researcher Nathan Lane Has shown how that policy also became a springboard for the wider industry. By extension, it was a key to the country’s economic miracle.

It is just a bit far -fetched to say that it is thanks to Nixon that today’s high -tech South Korean companies belong to a few in the world that can manufacture electric car batteries. See and learn, the EU.

Other examples, such as South Koreas Northern neighbor, shows that extreme militarization does not automatically make a country rich and developed.

But American and South Korean history show that it is possible to get strong technological exchange on military renovation. However, it often takes time. And it probably requires some luck.

Some parts of American history EU nevertheless copy straight away, such as the fact that the United States puts almost a fifth of its defense budget on research and development. It is far more than European countries do today.

The goal of Europe’s major defense initiatives is primarily to face military threats on their own. But at the same time strengthening Europe’s economy must be smart.

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