The author is a finance fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School and a senior partner at 1BusinessWorld
When former US secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld dismissed “old Europe” in 2003 and hailed the rise of the east, Poland took the message to heart, investing heavily in its defences. Germany, by contrast, bristled at the remark but stood still. Now, 22 years later, Berlin has finally moved — alongside most EU leaders — embracing a fundamental shift in Europe’s defence posture.
