Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/britain-germany-bolster-defence-cooperation-with-new-agreement-2024-10-22/
Germany and Britain’s intentions with this new agreement will be very beneficial to not just themselves but to the European pillar within NATO. With this agreement they would “strengthen their ability to cooperate and conduct exercises on the bloc’s eastern flank, improving their deterrence in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”. However the main focus is the development and advancement of long-range strike weapons and to start projects to strengthen their defence capabilities of the air, sea, land, and cyber domains. Germany will station planes in Scotland to assist in the protection on the north Atlantic sea and work to equip modern missile systems onto German Sea King helicopters which will be sent to Ukraine to aid their efforts against the Russians.
This defence agreement will be the first between Britain and Germany who are Europe’s biggest spenders on defence and because of this Europe will be much stronger and play a bigger role in NATO. I think this happened when it did because everyone had expected the war in Russian and Ukraine would have lasted no more than a month but has been going on for the past three years and because of the close proximity of these two countries they have decided to combine their resources to greatly increase the defence of Europe. I also think that more counties will also start to do the same thing and ultimately leading Europe to be the safest continent in the world.
Personally I believe Germany and Britain are feeling really good right now because they spend the most amount of money and resources on defence in Europe and now that they have come to an agreement to combine their defence they are both even stronger right now. Ukraine is also benefiting from this agreement because they are receiving helicopters with modern missile systems, armored vehicles, and land-based drones. On the other hand, Russia is probably concerned right now because their intentions with the invasion was to take over the capital and place a puppet leader but since everyone hates Russia, Ukraine has received aid from many different counties and with Germany and Britain who are two global superpowers coming together, Russia is probably worried about other countries following their footsteps.
This is an example of the Realist Theory. The Realist Theory States that the world is in a state of anarchy so countries will do things to increase their power and in return increase their chances of surviving. This agreement is a “I’ll scratch your back and you scratch mine” kind of situation where both countries are benefiting from this agreement so there is no reason for them to turn on each other and break their agreement. You can also analyze the cause and effect of this situation. The cause is that Russia invaded Ukraine and the surrounding countries started to get nervous and the effect is that Germany and Britain decided to come together to strengthen their defences.