This paper analyzes the political economy and domestic politics of fighter jet procurement in Europe. The purchase of expensive fighter jets illustrates the fragmentation of European defense procurement policies: despite astronomical costs and attempts at developing a European defense industry, governments continue to operate without coordination. While some countries like the Netherlands and Denmark have invested in the American F-35, others like Germany have acquired a European product, the Eurofighter, and France and Sweden have acquired their national fighter jets. While IR theories provide compelling hypotheses about the governments’ original preferences, they neglect the fact that the procurement process is a protracted one that is rife with domestic politics. By identifying sequences within the acquisition process and stressing endogenous factors, the political approach explains why European countries usually end up with different and fewer jets than they initially planned.
