Poland’s Military Boom Is Running on Borrowed Money – and Borrowed Time

Poland is financing the “strongest land army in Europe” on debt, shrinking personnel and a repayment schedule that collides with the very years NATO expects the threat from Russia to peak. Can the model hold when the bills come due? There is a conversation Europe is postponing. Across the continent, defence spending is rising at a speed not seen in decades. Governments are accelerating procurement, expanding forces and constructing new financial instruments to fund deterrence. The urgency needs no explanation. But what has moved more slowly is the conversation about how all this will ultimately be paid for. In few...