A European Union study on how it should spend tens of billions of euros in high-tech investments warns that Europe may need to use the money to guard against geopolitical risks such as potential U.S. decline and the rise of China or Russia.
The report by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation sketches out scenarios such as a U.S. turn to isolationism, the establishment of an E.U. army, the growth of a Chinese military presence on the edges of Europe and a renewed invasion by Russia into Ukraine as potential events over the next decade that the E.U. may need to prepare for with targeted technological investment.