Cohen said the European Union (EU) could not field a 60,000-strong crisis reaction force by 2003, as decided in Helsinki last December, if the member states continue to cut military spending. He acknowledged they could save money by downsizing Cold War military structures, but unless the savings are spent on new rapid deployment forces "we will not see the capabilities talked about so passionately," Cohen warned the EU.

Expressing skepticism about the EU's plans, Cohen listed their deficiencies in logistics, intelligence, command and control, and midair refueling revealed in the NATO war against Yugoslavia. These are shortcomings EU leaders are well aware of and are spurring the drive to joint military commitments. Javier Solana, former NATO secretary and now foreign and security policy coordinator for the EU, responded, "Putting practical military strength at the top of our agenda should reassure our North American allies. We are doing what they have urged us to do for decades."

But facts point in another direction. Germany, the state with the biggest share of the EU's economy, spends 1.3 percent of its gross domestic product on the military, down from 1.6 percent in 1997 and well below the 3.4 percent of the United States.

Washington's plans to build a national antimissile shield was criticized at the Munich meeting by representatives of EU governments and by Russia and China for destabilizing world security. Cohen tried to ease the criticism and underscored the strong bipartisan support the plan has in Washington. Berlin demanded that Washington not move ahead unilaterally with its missile defense system because such a system "would have a major impact" on NATO.

EU member states fear that the missile defense system will fuel an arms race with Russia and China without necessarily fulfilling its declared purpose as a shield against "rogue states," which is Washington's official motivation for it.

One of Russia's top generals, Leonid Ivashov, accused Washington at the conference of spinning "a fairy tale" in justifying the missile defense as essentially against rogue state missiles. He said the system was aimed "primarily against Russian and Chinese missiles."

Wang Guangya, China's vice foreign minister, argued that with missile defense the United States could shield itself from China's small nuclear arsenal of some 27 long-range missiles and allow Washington, if it wanted, to encourage Taiwan's independence.

Carl-Erik Isacsson is a member of the Metalworkers Union in Södertälje Sweden.  
 
 
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