Coercion, consensus, and capability: The Warsaw Pact and the institutional limits of NATO and EU defence coordination

This article assesses the institutional limits of multilateral defence coordination by comparing the Warsaw Pact with NATO and the EU across capability planning, industrial policy and regional investment. Treating the Warsaw Pact as an upper-bound case of enforced integration, it contrasts its coercive, hierarchical mechanisms with the consensus-based frameworks used in NATO and the EU. The analysis shows that although coercion can raise baseline cooperation, it cannot overcome enduring asymmetries of political economy, national preferences and geography that also constrain NATO and the EU. The article concludes that institutional design cannot offset divergent interests, economies and strategic geographies.