Thread by @RikeFranke

Good @POLITICOEurope article this morning on "strategic autonomy"(these days more often 'strategic sovereigtny')
politico.eu/article/europe…

I agree that the term is (deliberately) vague - from the 'European Army' to 'Brexit', the EU has always used vague terms which allowed countries with different views to rally behind them.

(I wrote about this here:
ecfr.eu/article/commen…)

But I think the authors miss an important point when they describe European autonomy just as "inward-looking".
Because I have observed an important uptick of debate about the geopolitics of Europe exactly because of the autonomy/sovereignty discussion.

Because in order to be autonomous or sovereign, you need to think about your capabilities and where you want to be in 5 or 10 years time. You need to think about the strength you want, and where to work with allies. You understand yourself as part of a global system.

So I'd argue that - perhaps somewhat counterintuitively - 'European strategic autonomy' is actually leading to more thinking about Europe's role in the world and its geopolitical power.
What that debate will lead to practically remains to be seen.