By tracing the trajectory of EU security discourses from 2010 to 2024, the article shows a growing emphasis on total defence at the EU level, combining civilian and military capabilities, well before the recent resurgence of the concept of strategic autonomy.
The findings suggest that while strategic autonomy has certainly elevated the European total defence idea and catalysed the development of EU total defence capacities, most notably in the civilian domain, it has simultaneously reinforced NATO’s role as the main constraint on its full realisation.
These findings underscore the long-term discursive evolution underpinning the EU’s security strategy and its ongoing efforts to consolidate a European total defence framework, now more tangible than ever.