Foreign & Security Policy

As the relationship with the U.S. government is fundamentally shifting, Germany faces a critical choice between deepening transatlantic defense procurement or seizing the moment to build out Europe's defense-tech ecosystem.

Our new study maps how U.S.–German exchange programs have evolved from 2020–2025, revealing disrupted funding, shifting political pressures, innovative new models, and urgent recommendations to strengthen democratic ties across the Atlantic.

Europe must urgently rethink defense, handling five key tasks in case the US significantly reduces its European military footprint. European leaders can make the choices necessary to fill the gaps by following this blueprint.

Europe’s defence map is being redrawn. Our new Böll EU Brief tracks over 160 defence partnerships signed since 2014 among EU countries, the UK and Ukraine – most of them after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Bilateralism boosts trust, interoperability and procurement speed, but also risks duplication and fragmentation. To turn this patchwork into strategy, the EU and NATO should map and integrate these deals into joint planning, strengthen the European Defence Agency’s role, and use bilaterals to offset declining US support.  

The Trump administration has prioritized strategic and economic ties with Saudi Arabia over human rights concerns, neglecting issues like travel bans on US citizens and repression of dissent.

The incoming German government will have to navigate challenges that are existential to Germany, Europe. This publication applies a feminist perspective to the far-reaching impact of the second Trump administration on global peace and security.

The 2024 re-election of Donald Trump as US president, and the realignment of US security strategy that is expected to follow fundamentally changes Europe’s security outlook. The EU cannot become Europe’s security provider, but it can, through its defence industrial policy, support the funding and organization of the rearmament effort.