Britain’s Importance to Europe’s Security

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/opinion/britains-importance-to-europes-security-nato.html

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Maybe it was fate that soon after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, the English would suffer their most devastating sports upset in decades — a 2-1 loss to Iceland (pop. 323,000) on Monday that knocked England out of the European Championship soccer tournament. In the British tabloids the economic turmoil and the sporting humiliation combined for an image of a Great Britain that abruptly looked far less great.

Adapting to new economic and political realities will take time, as will sorting out crucial security issues. At the E.U. meeting, which began Tuesday, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, unveiled a five-year global strategy plan meant in part to reduce Europe’s reliance on the United States in Europe. At the NATO summit meeting planned for Warsaw next week, the alliance was to pledge greater cooperation between NATO and the E.U. Until Britain’s vote, Washington had been looking to London to act as the conduit between NATO and Brussels on these matters. With Britain now moving to leave the E.U. and facing months of economic tumult, all such plans are up in the air.

Yet Europe and the Atlantic alliance cannot put a hold on the serious security challenges they face, especially from a Russia fast rebuilding its military and counting on European fissures to cement its control over its neighbors.

The meeting in Warsaw will be a good time for Britain to demonstrate unequivocally that it remains fully committed to NATO and to its security responsibilities in the European Union. Britain, in the words of the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, is “the biggest security provider in Europe.” It has the largest military budget in the European Union, amounting to roughly a quarter of the defense investment and military power of the E.U.

It is equally imperative for Germany and France, as the leaders of Continental Europe, to demonstrate their commitment to Western stability and defense no matter how Brexit goes. And as the European Union wrestles with this turmoil, NATO, under American leadership, must step up and leave no doubt that the alliance, with Britain as a core member, will remain united and strong.