Capabilities traps and gaps: symptom or cause of a troubled transatlantic relationship?

Abstract

The identification of critical capabilities shortfalls has elicited substantially different ‘to do’ lists in NATO, the European Union, and national defence ministry policies and initiatives. Moreover, these capabilities shortfalls have proven to be moving targets, particularly since American military primacy allows the United States to define the terms of the capabilities debate. The emerging transformation of American armed forces has aggravated the pre-existing ‘capabilities gaps’. An important question arises: do these gaps represent the continuation of free-riding within the alliance or reflect a more fundamental divergence between the strategic cultures and practice of statecraft in the United States and in Europe? NATO's future may depend upon whether the capabilities gaps that exist are structural or time-dependent, upon whether those gaps represent different understandings of security in the post-Cold War world, and upon whether the capabilities debate reflects a set of capability gaps that need to be redressed or a set of capability traps to which the Europeans have fallen prey.