Hedgehog Europe?

What is defence really for? Across Europe, defence budgets are falling off a cliff thanks to the economic crisis -- whilst the case for spending on the military seems progressively harder to make. The Russian bear no longer terrifies as it did, and Afghanistan has blunted appetites for more far-flung adventures. Perhaps it's time for Europe to think about becoming more like a hedgehog -- inward looking and prickly.

In the second of a two part series of podcasts, Daniel Korski talks to Nick Witney about how European security will have to be rethought from the ground up after the economic crisis - and how the best option might be to become a spikey, hedgehog-like larger version of Switzerland. Click here for the audio.

You can listen to the audio of Part One here.

Richard Gowan explains why he thinks Europe cannot afford to ignore security risks beyond the horizon, no matter how bad the financial situation, here. 

You can also listen and comment via our Facebook page, or subscribe to any of our series of podcasts in English, Spanish, French and German via iTunes (here is the link for the ECFR reports series).