After so many years of enjoying the “peace dividend” and the overtly generous American sponsorship for European defense, it is going to be an uphill struggle to get European states to focus more on military capability for deterrence and defense. It is easier—and much cheaper—to focus mostly on the weaponization of information than to plan and execute a long-term costly military capability development program. But after so many years of neglect, European defense cannot be reinvigorated solely by projects like “smart defense”, “pooling and sharing” or “permanent structured cooperation.” Similarly, the time for “niche capabilities” is over.

In order to regain some lost military capability in Europe by the end of next decade and to change the focus of defense planning in the United States actions should be taken now. However, much of the discussion on deterrence and “real” defense capability is lost in the noise provided by the narrative that accentuates fake news, the weaponization of information, and election meddling. This is bizarre, as most Western states have little to fear with these so-called “new threats” within the information and cyber domains.

Lt. Col. Jyri Raitasalo is military professor of war studies at the Finnish National Defence University. The views expressed here are his own.