As NATO faces multiple security challenges—from a revisionist Russia in the East to Islamic extremism in the South—it is time for a real strategic debate.

The European Union is mired in the worst crisis it has seen for many decades. This threatens to undercut the EU’s ambitions to develop a coherent and active foreign policy.

The next years will see most, if not all, of NATO's major military operations draw down as the Alliance finds itself, for the first time in twenty years, without a major operation to run.

Europe should not ignore its still formidable military power and its historical ties to certain parts of the developing world in an attempt to build a new, soft, Brussels-based power.

With the ratification of the Lisbon treaty, the EU had hoped to develop the infrastructure to handle the challenges of the twenty-first century world, but recent developments have sparked widespread talk of Europe's relative decline.