| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The austerity efforts of European governments following the sovereign debt crisis have reinforced the long-running trend of shrinking defence expenditure in Europe. The need to implement a sustainable spending and budget policy in order to prevent young and future generations from being unduly burdened with debt is often used as the key justification. This argument makes obvious sense. But it isolates financial considerations and budget consolidation from a world in which the uncertainty of developments in the international security realm remains a core feature of international politics. The result is that the goals of financial policy and security policy are increasingly in conflict. Security policy, too, has to be sustainable for the state to discharge its responsibility for the security and freedom of its citizens in the future.
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