The maths of Europe’s military black hole
It needs to spend to defend, but voters may balk
ON NOVEMBER 23rd Mark Rutte, the new head of NATO, and Donald Trump, America’s president-elect, were photographed together grinning delightedly and shaking hands in Palm Beach, Florida. Yet the mood in Europe’s defence ministries is one of grim foreboding. At a gathering of defence officials and defence-industry executives in Prague a few days after the election, the most optimistic sentiment was that Mr Trump was “unpredictable”. Others were a lot less upbeat.
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