NATO is not the only relevant multilateral security actor in Europe these days. Increasingly, the European Union has been called upon to fill various security and defense roles, explained Rear Admiral Henning Faltin, the EU Defense Attaché to the US and Canada, in a recent visit to the Blue Center for Global Strategic Assessment at the Yale Jackson School.

Faltin’s lecture, “A ‘Strategic Compass’ for Security and Defense: The European Union as Global Security Actor,” addressed the ways the EU’s military function has changed in recent years and described certain roles that the EU was in a better position to fill than NATO in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“The EU is especially good at creating massive economic incentives for private industry,” said Faltin, including stimulating weapons manufacturing and other forms of aid.

Faltin also highlighted ongoing military operations, such as Operations Atalanta in the Horn of Africa and Operations Aspides in the Red Sea, where EU naval forces are conducting counter-piracy and freedom of navigation activities — similar to ongoing missions conducted by the U.S. and other EU allies.

Following the lecture, Faltin fielded questions from members of the Yale community on a variety of topics, including the nomination of the EU’s first defense commissioner this fall, the challenges of requiring unanimity from the 27 different EU member states on certain military matters, and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“As the EU attaché to the U.S. and Canada, Admiral Faltin is about as well-positioned as any military officer on the planet to discuss Europe’s military diplomacy,” said Phil Kaplan, executive director of the Blue Center.

Faltin is the first military officer to deliver a speech at the center, which launched earlier this year and is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of statecraft.