1/ I find the "strategic compass" of the EU ill-conceived. The policy discourse is overly state-eccentric and articulates mainly economic concerns (e.g. supply chain resilience). The conversation seems strangely devoid of engagement with human security, health security, #WHO
2/ The neglect of the health care side of security is disrespectful of Millions of mourning families. It also provokes an inescapable moral question: is the dream of "autonomy" and becoming a "global player" more important than a complex security issue that produces 800k corpses?
3/ Discussing EU's security situation & the "protection" of EU citizens has to start with experiences from the pandemic. Why? Just look at the numbers: the EU has lost 808 871 citizens. That is 16% of global #Covid19 deaths and currently the top position
https://twitter.com/mayer_iras/status/1458175004554715143
4/ 8 0 8 8 7 1 is a staggering number. It indicates a epic failure of European states to protect their citizens from emerging lethal threats. This could happen again cgdev.org/blog/the-next-… and the lethality of future viruses could be higher.
5/ And yet, this horrific experience of mass death, lockdowns, and disruptions is barely mentioned, let alone systematically reflected in the strategic compass discussions. The issue at stake here is not simply to draw to key "lessons" from Covid to improve pandemic preparedness.
6/ The fact that the EU was utterly unprepared to handle a pandemic requires deeper inspection&analysis. The core question is: what does this disaster mean for EU security priorities, particularly concerning human security, non-traditional and bio-security components?
7/ We should discuss the prioritization of threats and risks as well as the prioritization of tools and instruments to respond to them, all of which underpin the EU's Compass.
8/ A EU parliament briefing offers a clue about what is prioritized now: "The Covid-19 pandemic has perhaps served as the most obvious test case of how non-military vulnerabilities could have national and international security repercussions..." europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes…
9/ "... and how the military can contribute to what would usually be considered a civilian, humanitarian or police task." Let this sink in...
10/ ... A global threat, against which the EU could not defend itself, caused 800k deaths and will ultimately cost more than a million lifes in Europe (and probably 15-20 Mio globally economist.com/graphic-detail…) is framed as a "humanitarian task".
11/ The same briefing does not mention once "health security" or "bio security", europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes… and the rest of the discussion, as far as I am aware of, does not stress & prioritize these issues either.
12/ Instead, EU parliamentarians are supposed to consider is "national and international security" as the prime concern. Really, is it? Is the main concern with the pandemic really how it's changing "geopolitics" and how it highlights tech and resource dependence of the EU?
13/ Please judge yourself. To me, this line-up of priorities is wrong. If the EU is simply glossing over 800k #Covid19 victims, it's failing at the most fundamental human level of the social contract. The strategic compass thus needs a proper calibration to function correctly.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
