It's easy to be a pacifist when there is peace. But when war is at your doorstep, the decision becomes personal: how do you uphold the banner of nonviolence when you have the responsibility of defending your own home? How can you continue to defend this ideal when Russian expansionism is on the border of Europe, the United States has abandoned the defense of the continent, and has abdicated its role as guarantor of international law?

We grew up with the idea of continuous progress, with the expectation that things are always moving forward and improving, even though there might be ups and downs, accelerations and setbacks. That's why what is currently disconcerting and anxiety-inducing is having to conclude that the world is generally and continuously regressing in practically every area. Even major technological advances are viewed with fear, if not as complicit in the rest of the material and moral setbacks.

What would have happened today, in the midst of European and Spanish rearmament, if a workshop for repairing and adapting military vehicles had positioned itself as a candidate to reindustrialize the old Nissan factory in the Free Trade Zone? The project was put on the table in 2021But the Catalan government, then under the leadership of Pere Aragonès, quickly shelved the proposal. This was the official reason given for the failure of the Tess Defence consortium's proposal, which was backed by the Ministry of Industry. Headlines at the time reported that the Catalan government rejected this option, but, as ARA has learned, it was the Minister of Defense herself, Margarita Robles, who had already sealed the fate of that investment in the Zona Franca.

We don't know how it will all end, but in case historians ever wonder if humans in 2025 didn't see the alarming course events were taking, the answer is that we did. How could we not see it, if it was happening during the day and right under our noses?

When Ferdinand Porsche presented The first 911 at the 1963 Frankfurt Motor Show, no one would have imagined that, decades later, the name that has thrilled some of the world's most famous circuits would appear associated with drones, satellites, and cybersecurity. The unmistakable silhouette of the 911, with its round headlights and drooping tail, has become an icon of the 20th century: a symbol of freedom on the motorway, of victories at Le Mans, and of German industrial pride. perhaps now somewhat in decline.

Last Monday, the White House streamed nearly 26 minutes of the meeting between President Donald Trump and European leaders plus NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who accompanied Volodymyr Zelensky to his meeting with the tycoon after the Alaska summit with Vladimir PutinThe goal was to ensure that all this didn't end like the dawn rosary. That is, like the February meeting, when the Ukrainian president He was invited to leave with his tail between his legs after the Oval Office humiliation.. And also to prevent Kiev from being forced to accept peace terms on the terms set by the Kremlin.

2024 was the year with the most active wars in the last twelve years and the year with the most displaced people in history. These are the conclusions of the Alert 2025 report! These are high-intensity wars, meaning they cause more than a thousand deaths per year. Furthermore, there are 116 tension scenarios, contexts in which armed conflict could easily break out, a figure that is the highest since 2010.

Military spending is the typical topic exploited by the commentators of the day—that is, those who must make a comment anywhere and under any circumstance—to criticize anti-militarists and, above all, to accuse the belief that we can live in a world without armies and in peace as naive. However, for now, the only thing that is certain is that we live in a world with armies that is not at peace. A world under the permanent threat of world war, with conflicts breaking out in different parts of the planet. A world that suffers from stratospheric social inequalities and allocates an equally disproportionate amount of money to so-called defense services that only defend the interests of egomaniacs incompetent in diplomacy. Democratically elected megalomaniacs, some more than others, who receive the votes, paradoxically, of those who will suffer the most from the consequences of their policies and who will be the jailers of their own prisons. We live in a land that constantly revolves around the same mistakes without resolving them and falls again and again, as if it were an inevitable physical fact. A land full of graves of lives that were full and have suddenly been emptied by these weapons and bombs that we must buy and must have to defend ourselves against our enemies. A defense that must also be acquired under threat, because if you don't buy it, they coerce you into not buying it. From the outset, they already put the gun to your chest. It can't be said that they aren't consistent. But that's what security is all about: constantly threatening you. So the question is obvious: What should we really defend ourselves against? Are we safe in a world where bombs don't fall on us directly but we see them annihilating other human beings? Will we be much more at ease if we rearm and allocate taxes to camouflage uniforms and supersonic aircraft, which are equally susceptible to being shot down but will die killing? Who do we want to enrich the most, apart from the corrupt? Who, as always, is benefiting from so much killing, so much destruction, and so much threat? Is it really naive to start standing up to all this? Maybe it's impossible to do, but isn't that what everyone should really be thinking?

Indra takes a step further on its way to consolidating itself as the Spanish "champion" of the defense sector and is launching a full-fledged entry into the military business. This Thursday, the company's general shareholders' meeting, with the State as the largest shareholder with 28% of the share capital through SEPI, approved the amendment to the company's bylaws to introduce the military business as one of the company's areas of activity. The underlying objective is to grow in the military vehicle manufacturing segment, but also in the space business. "With the approval of its shareholders, Indra has amended its bylaws to allow the development, manufacture, and marketing of military land vehicles, devices, and air and space vehicles, among others, in accordance with its strategic plan," the company emphasized in a press release.

Donald Trump's man in Europe continues to spread his militaristic rhetoric. Two weeks before the NATO summit in The Hague, Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a resounding warning from London to all members of the Alliance. In a world where "hope is not a strategy," the allies must commit to making NATO a "stronger, fairer, and more lethal" entity, capable of guaranteeing the security of one billion people on both sides of the Atlantic. Among other reasons, because the Kremlin "could be prepared to use military force against NATO within five years," Rutte said from Chatham House, hours after meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

A Ukrainian honor section took part last Monday in the military parade of 1,300 soldiers that went through central London, and which opened the commemorative events in the United Kingdom of the 80th anniversary of VE Day in Europe (VE Day in World War II). On Whitehall Avenue, which connects Parliament Square with Trafalgar Square –where several British ministries are concentrated–, buildings displayed the Union Jack (the British flag) and the Ukrainian flag.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria moriHoracio wrote. "It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country." However, in this European climate conducive to expanding security and defense capabilities with large increases in the military budget for the coming years, why isn't there also talk of the need for more troops? If you will, in a word, what will be the increase in demand for soldiers willing to die honorably and sweetly for the country?

Dulce et decorum est pro patria moriHoracio wrote. "It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country." However, in this European climate conducive to expanding security and defense capabilities with large increases in the military budget for the coming years, why isn't there also talk of the need for more troops? If you will, in a word, what will be the increase in demand for soldiers willing to die honorably and sweetly for the country?

Western culture has generated so many fictions about its own demise (in novels, films, comics, songs) that the time seems approaching to bring reality closer to fictions. Perhaps the difficulties we now have in remembering the days of the COVID pandemic in detail have to do with their strange resemblance to so many stories of mass contagion that we had previously disseminated for many years: the memories of the days of strict confinement, and of the subsequent months of preventive measures, are confusing, imprecise, and fleeting. It all began with alarms that seemed exaggerated to us, with images of Chinese markets where bats were sold, with the refusal to wear masks that we ended up using universally. Masks, by the way, were a source of wealth for many: the usual smart ones marketed them illegally and illicitly, making a killing at the expense of the collective catastrophe. But many also marketed masks completely legally, in a thousand different colors, patterns, and models. The pandemic didn't make us better, but it did once again demonstrate capitalism's relentless ability to transform literally everything into market products, governed by the law of supply and demand.

The Bundestag, the lower house of the German Parliament, approved this Tuesday with 513 votes in favor and 207 against (no abstentions) a Constitutional reform to make the debt brake more flexible, anchored in the Fundamental Law, the German constitution. German MPs have thus given the green light to the rearmament plan and the multi-billion-dollar investment package agreed upon last week by Germany's likely future chancellor, conservative Friedrich Merz, along with the Social Democrats and environmentalists. Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz voted in favor.

On the domestic front, the big news of recent days has been the visit to the Moncloa Palace by political interlocutors who are currently in Congress, but whom the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has preferred to convene individually. One might have thought that this option would result in a more or less confidential content, seeking an opportunity to obtain approximations that are more difficult to obtain in Congressional sessions. But this was not the case. The legislature continues to be dominated by strategies that respond to immediate interests. No one gives an inch of ground. Weakness cannot be shown. Sánchez's smile every time he received one of the guests for the dialogue on the new European priorities in defense and security has not reflected the atmosphere of the contacts.

Imagine someone who, in the middle of a fire, orders a fire extinguisher by mail to put out the flames. This grotesque image suggests the way in which Europe has suddenly decided to solve its security problems, which are anything but imaginary. The change of script brought about by Donald Trump's stumbles in international politics has aggravated the situation, but it has not created it. At least since 2014, the intentions to recompose the USSR and its former areas of influence were more than evident, and not only because of the occupation of Crimea. Putin has stated and repeated that the worst catastrophe of the 20th century was the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Anyone who did not want to hear about it in Brussels is either naive or completely irresponsible. The weakness of Europe under Trump is already good for him, because he never negotiates or engages in dialogue: he simply haggles, always playing with an advantage (and if not, he does not play). That is what he has done until now.