Donald Trump has won a decisive victory—this win has global geopolitical consequences and poses particularly serious challenges for European security, especially for Ukraine. During his 2016-2020 presidency, Trump had shown disdain for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and on the campaign trail, he openly called into question US commitment to the mutual defense pledge, while Vice President JD Vance has explicitly proposed ending US military and financial support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia.

At a time of great uncertainty for the future of NATO, the EU, transatlantic relations and Ukraine, the Institute today officially launches a new project to explore options and constraints to integrate defense in Europe: ALCIDE (Activating the Law Creatively to Integrate Defense in Europe). ALCIDE brings together a group of thought leaders and scholars, and — through a dedicated website — it will publish research and policy initiatives to accelerate European defense integration.

Professor Federico Fabbrini has published the following paper, “European Defense Integration after Trump’s Re-Election: A Proposal to Revive the European Defense Community Treaty and its Legal Feasibility” which is forthcoming in European Law Journal. The paper sheds light on the European Defence Community (EDC), an organization established by a treaty concluded in 1952, at the dawn of the Cold War, designed to strengthen the European component of NATO. The paper explains that the EDC created a common European army, funded by a common budget and governed by supranational institutions. It then underlines how 4 of the 6 founding Member States (Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) had duly ratified the EDC Treaty and advances solid legal arguments to claim that Italy and France could still ratify the treaty today. This would open the door to the entry into force of the EDC, strengthening European defense much more substantially and much more quickly than could be achieved by amending the EU treaties at 27.