(Ed/ENJ) European Commission President Ursula von Leyen first used the term “Pax Europaea” in May 2025, during her acceptance speech for the Charlemagne Peace Prize in Aachen. This new term, reflecting the gradual disappearance of “Pax Americana” in Europe, was subsequently adopted by Commissioner for Space and Defence Andrius Kubilius at the Tocqueville Conversations in Brussels in June 2025: “Pax Europaea (Peace in Europe) is our strategic responsibility. Our responsibility, not an American one. To achieve this, we must be prepared to be independent.”
The managing director of the Federation of German Security and Defence Industries (BDSV e.V.) in Berlin, Dr Hans Christoph Atzpodien, questions the “Pax Europaea” in a policy paper published by the ESCP Geopolitics Institute as part of the “Europe and the War in Ukraine” project of Sorbonne Alliance (ESCP-INALCO-Sorbonne Nouvelle).
In his analysis, Dr Atzpodien reflects on the risks threatening this “Pax Europaea” and recommends adopting a realistic approach to European defence, taking account of the conditions and limitations of European armaments cooperation.
According to him, Europe remains undeniably dependent on NATO, “which must, for the time being, remain our solid basis of deterrence against Russian and other threats to Europe’s territorial or political integrity”. Europe’s own means available to provide military support to Ukraine are, for their part, limited “especially with regard to space-based capabilities, which are indispensable for modern electronic warfare”.
For the author, the essential question remains whether there will be sufficient effective cooperation and joint action between European governments in the field of armaments, and whether we can hope to see, sooner or later, the contours of a European defence capability.
Dr Hans C. Atzpodien has been Managing Director of the BDSV since 2017. He previously held senior management positions in the ThyssenKrupp Group, including CEO of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems division (now known as TKMS Group) from 2007 to 2012 and CEO of the ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions business area with sales of €6 billion from 2012 to 2015. In 2009, Dr Atzpodien was one of the co-founders of the BDSV and member of the board from its foundation until 2016, including one year as President of the association. He trained as a lawyer and also holds an academic degree in political and administrative sciences.
