The subject is controversial and the geopolitics are fraught. Many experts say the prospect of rolling out a free-standing E.U. military anytime soon is unrealistic. But the clamoring, which subsided somewhat after Biden’s election, has intensified in recent days, as European countries abruptly ended their evacuations ahead of the final American flight out of the Kabul airport.

E.U. foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, asserted that his proposed joint rapid-deployment force of 5,000 troops could have helped to secure the airport, and that a coordinated European security strategy would have allowed the bloc more influence over the “timing and nature of the withdrawal.”

“The only way forward is to combine our forces and strengthen not only our capacity, but also our will to act,” Borrell said following a meeting of E.U. defense ministers in Slovenia on Thursday.

Other leaders have argued for “strategic autonomy,” an ill-defined E.U. buzzphrase that refers to the need for the bloc to become more self-sufficient on a range of issues, especially its security.