Lessons from History: Building the Industrial Base for European Deterrence and Defence

Moderated panel discussion, followed by Q&A. 

Europe is rearming faster than at any point since the Cold War, yet the harder question is no longer how much to spend, but how to build the industrial capacity to deter, and, if necessary fight, a war. History offers hard-won lessons. The panel takes as its starting point a new study that distills a century of war economies into ten hard lessons for today's rearmament, and puts them to a live test: how must Europe's defence economy be built to make deterrence credible, reduce its dependence on the United States, and remain a sovereign, resilient economic power?

Concretely, across scenarios for European security and defence-industrial policy, the panel asks what readiness and rearmament demand once plans meet reality: standing industrial capacity that private markets alone won't build, state-of-the-art military technology, and procurement that is fast without being wasteful. History is unambiguous that industrial policy for war is double-edged - indispensable in the moment, but prone to entrenching interests that outlast the emergency that created them. The panel confronts that tension directly: how to build the defence-industrial base Europe needs now, without building in tomorrow's dysfunction.

Panel:

Mark Harrison is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick. An economic historian, he is a leading expert on Russia and on the international and historical economics of defence and security, and author of the upcoming Kiel Report "Industrial Policy for Defence: Lessons from History."

Sönke Neitzel holds the Chair of War Studies at the University of Potsdam, the only one of its kind in Germany. A historian specializing in military history and the history of war, he is a prominent public voice in Germany, frequently commenting on contemporary security and defence debates.

Moritz Schularick, Professor of economics and President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, has positioned the institute as a prominent voice on European defence economics, and has shaped the debate over defence spending and military procurement in Germany.

Moderated by Anna Engelke, Deputy Head of ARD-Hauptstadtstudio, specializing in security and defence policy, co-host of the NDR podcast "Streitkräfte und Strategien”, Host of the ARD political news show “Bericht aus Berlin“.

The event will be held in English, with simultaneous translation into German provided.

Registration