In the French online publication Le Grand Continent, Dr Marco Wyss (Lancaster) and Dr Hugo Meijer (Sciences Po Paris) critically assess what has increasingly been identified as a defence renaissance in Europe. In emphasising the strategic divergences between EU member states and European sub-regions, they argue that Europe is currently confronted with a strategic cacophony, which is reminiscent of Renaissance Italy, when wealthy but military weak city states and kingdoms failed to unite to confront external threats.

Their assessment draws from the major new analysis of European defence set out in The Handbook of European Defence Policies and Armed Forces, published by Oxford University Press, which they co-edited.