Hedley Bull e l’Europa come potenza militare: un inedito

As war continues along Europe’s borders, with Europe itself involved in supporting Ukraine, renewed attention has been drawn to the essay that Hedley Bull—one of the most influential theorists of international relations of his generation—devoted in 1982 to the need for the Old Continent to develop an autonomous strategic and military policy. In Bull’s view, this constituted a necessary condition for confronting international tensions and responding effectively to external threats. Read today, the text appears strikingly prophetic: with remarkable clarity, it already identified the vulnerability of Western European countries so long as they remained without the means required to ensure their own military security and, consequently, their political and economic autonomy as well.