Brussels Warned Over Pervasive Militaristic Rhetoric in Economic Policymaking

Although the European Union is not technically at war, its leadership and commentators increasingly frame all major policy areas, particularly economics, in militaristic terms. In Brussels, external factors like Chinese exports, US tariffs, and corporate regulations are consistently described as destructive forces, prompting calls for defensive economic security and trade retaliation. Economists argue this conceptual militarism is not only nonsensical – such as misinterpreting tariffs, which act more like industrial parenting than destructive weapons – but also highly dangerous.