The EU never developed its own hard-power capabilities. Not only was European military cooperation factious and frowned upon by Washington, but the European states all took the peace dividend. In light of Russia’s weakness, what reason was there not to run down their substantial cold war military establishments? It was this decision that laid the basis for the transatlantic divide on security policy in the 2000s. It also left the East Europeans all the more dependent on the Americans, whose military preponderance grew ever more massive as the new century progressed. At the same time, after the
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