This month's issue explores how Ukraine’s battlefield-forged defense industry offers cutting-edge capabilities for the EU; what rising energy prices due to war in the Middle East mean for the bloc's reindustrialization efforts; how Europe risks falling behind in the rocket race — and much more.
Over the past two weeks, Europe once again has been forced to watch a major geopolitical confrontation unfold largely without it. The U.S.-Israel war in Iran has left EU leaders on the sidelines, while laying bare European disunity.
There have been statements urging restraint, even as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen voiced cautious support for regime change in Tehran. Spain’s Pedro Sánchez, meanwhile, has taken the most forceful stance against the Trump administration, refusing U.S. requests to use Spanish military bases for attacks on Iran. Mostly, though, European leaders have been scrambling to assess the consequences of a decision about which they again had little say — and one with profound implications for security, energy and migration across the continent.
That reality has become an uncomfortable constant since Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Whether it’s NATO, Greenland or tariffs, Brussels — like most of us weary observers — is barely able to keep up, let alone shape events. But if the EU is serious about becoming a more credible geopolitical actor, particularly on security and defense, Russia’s war in Ukraine might be its clearest opportunity yet.
As this month’s cover story by Paula Soler explores, the relationship between Brussels and Kyiv has evolved far beyond the early days of emergency aid. After more than four years of war, Ukraine has become one of the world’s most innovative military laboratories — pioneering new approaches to drone warfare, battlefield intelligence and rapid technological adaptation.
For Europe, the lesson is not simply about supporting Ukraine’s defense. It’s about learning from it.
Ukraine’s wartime economy has produced a defense sector that generates $50 billion in annual production capacity, while constantly refining technologies under real combat conditions. European governments and companies are increasingly harnessing that experience, forging new industrial partnerships that could shape the continent’s future security architecture.
But as Paula’s reporting makes clear, the partnership’s full potential remains constrained by familiar obstacles: fragmented markets, slow procurement systems and political hesitation among member states. As one expert put it: “Europe needs production, not just cooperation.”
The EU has the resources, the industrial capacity and — through Ukraine — access to some of the most advanced military technologies in the world. What it lacks is real-time mobilization and speed. In an era when warfare seems to evolve week by week, that may prove to be the bloc’s greatest strategic vulnerability.
— Christopher Alessi, Editor-in-Chief