Qui porte le fardeau ? Les coûts de la production de défense dans l’Union européenne

Abstract

Do the EU countries form an optimal military alliance in which the burden would fairly be shared? To answer to this question, this article uses alliance theory analysis by comparing expected benefits and costs. The originality consists in examining these costs through different perspectives: In addition to the budgetary dimension, we also include innovation (R&D expenditures), capacity (equipment expenditures) and operations (troops deployment). This empirical work relies on the European defence agency database over the period 2005-2014. The results show that the EU may be considered as an alliance on personnel and troops deployments dimensions but not on R&D expenditures, equipment and defence spending as a whole.