War and power: can Europe turn spending into strength?
For decades, Europe lived off the peace dividend. Defence budgets shrank, industrial capacity withered, and war on the continent felt like history. That era is over.
It's been more than four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Defence budgets are rising sharply. Long-term procurement plans are expanding. Talk of “strategic autonomy” has shifted from rhetoric to policy.
But a critical question remains: can higher spending translate into real military strength?
In this webinar we’ll ask:
- What are European NATO members doing right?
- Where are they still getting it wrong?
- Is higher spend enough?
- Are governments building real capability, or simply allocating larger budgets into slow and fragmented systems?
- What does modern war actually require in terms of production, logistics, stockpiles, and technological edge?
We are delighted to be joined by Professor Phillips Payson O’Brien, one of the world’s leading historians of grand strategy and modern warfare.
As Head of the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, Professor O’Brien has become one of the most influential analysts of the Ukraine war. His commentary is widely read across policymaking, military, and financial circles. His insights have been regularly published in The Atlantic, The Times, The Spectator and The Telegraph, and he has appeared on media outlets in over 15 countries, including MSNBC, CNN, NPR, BBC, DW, and L’Express.
His new book, War and Power: Who Wins Wars - and Why, challenges conventional thinking about how wars are fought and what determines victory in the modern era.
