Something structurally significant is happening in European defense spending, and it is moving faster than most foreign policy watchers expected.

Germany, which for decades treated its post-war pacifism as a near-constitutional value, has committed to defense spending above 2% of GDP — a threshold it avoided for thirty years. Poland is on track to reach 5%. The UK announced its largest defense budget expansion since the Cold War. These are not incremental adjustments. They represent a fundamental reassessment of the security environment.