Military Cooperation in a time of COVID-19

The first part of the paper is an analysis of the patterns of military cooperation in Europe, reflecting variations in the security and defence policies of European states. It examines the different composition and roles of the European Union and NATO, as well as the more recent European Intervention Initiative. European governments at present show little appetite to bear the material or political costs of creating a single “European Army”. The second part of the paper examines the initial impact of the coronavirus pandemic on this policy area, and argues that future patterns of cooperation will depend on how the pandemic affects the evolution of immediate threats in the European region, changes in military technology, and geopolitical rivalry in the multipolar world order.