Europe is slowly disarming. Yet the continent no longer can rely on America to fill the gap. That realization has given France pause. Other European states also may start taking their security responsibilities more seriously.
The Europeans have been cutting military spending for years. EU leaders still might talk about creating a continental foreign policy and military, but European peoples exhibit little interest in paying the resulting bill.
Earlier this year NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen declared that "There is a lower limit on how little we can spend on defense." But what is it?