Defence of Europe in a New Era

The need for European countries to build up their own defence capabilities to defend their continent has assumed even greater urgency in the face of Russia's persistent threat and even greater expectations from the United States of burden-shifting towards European allies. Against this background, this IISS Strategic Dossier assesses critical areas for European allies to achieve greater self-reliance within NATO.The dossier provides an assessment of progress and challenges in European capacity to ramp up defence-industrial production four years since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It also examines the evolving defence-industrial ecosystem in Central and Eastern European countries.The volume analyses in depth the state of NATO's European land forces and the Alliance's logistics capacity. Moreover, it explores the adoption of emerging and disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum technologies, for Europe's defence.The dossier shows that European allies are gradually adjusting to a new era in Europe's defence. Defence-industrial production capacity has increased, and allies have formulated ambitious plans to build up land forces and sustain major combat operations. European states have developed competitive agentic AI applications for targeting and decision support, despite enduring dependencies on US suppliers. While key vulnerabilities are likely to persist until the end of this decade, European allies have made progress towards assuming greater responsibility for defending the continent.This IISS Strategic Dossier was produced in the context of the third IISS Prague Defence Summit (PDS) 2026, which has been supported by the government of the Czech Republic.