The threat of Communist expansion following World War II resulted in the United States and 11 other Western nations forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949. NATO is basically a military alliance – a mutual defense pact.
The 12 original members included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Over time, the membership has changed significantly; the term “Western nations” hardly applies anymore.
Now, 68 years later, 16 additional nations have joined NATO — Greece and Turkey (1952), the Federal Republic of Germany (1955), Spain (1982), the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland (1999), Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004), Albania and Croatia (2009). All French forces were removed from integrated NATO command in 1966, although France maintains a high level of membership among the 28 nations.
How many Americans know that the U.S. is committed to the defense of Bulgaria or Albania through NATO? Complicating things, some members, for instance Greece and Turkey, have engaged in shooting wars over traditional disputes even while parties to the treaty.
According to FactCheck.org, President Trump has said that he would “certainly look at” pulling the United States out of the international security alliance, because it is “obsolete” and “is costing us a fortune.” Trump’s main criticisms are that the alliance no longer serves its founding purpose and that it is too costly to the U.S., which pays about 22 percent of direct spending by NATO, the most of any nation. The U.S. also pays a much larger portion of the organization’s indirect costs.
Germany is second, about 14.5 percent, France 11 percent, the UK 10.5 percent and Italy 8.7 percent. Together the top five account for approximately 67 percent of NATO’s budget. When it comes to operations, some of which are off budget, the U.S. has an even greater share. We supplied 7,483 (42.7 percent) of NATO’s 17,514 total personnel deployed in Afghanistan and Kosovo, both major missions in 2015.
NATO’s target is for each member nation to spend at least two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, but only five of the 28 members met that obligation in 2015; the United Kingdom, Estonia, Greece, Poland and the United States. As a whole NATO Europe, the frontline nations, spent only an estimated 1.43 percent of GDP on defense; the United States spent 3.6 percent.
According to NATO, as published by Defense One, some of the wealthiest European nations are not meeting the goal including Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands (only 1.2 percent of GDP each), Norway (1.5 percent) and Luxembourg (0.5 percent). In North America Canada spends only 1 percent on defense. I estimate that if all of NATO Europe met the alliance spending goal it would relieve the U.S. of more than $100 billion of NATO obligations annually in 2015 dollars.
As NATO’s membership moves eastward, so does the tripwire for what is now Russia, formerly the Soviet Union; however, the alliance also absorbs more poor at-risk nations under its protective cover. In this President Trump is correct, the alliance no longer serves its founding purpose; it needs to be redefined.
On the issue of failed financial obligations, that problem is nothing new, but the risk factor is new based on geographic, political and demographic realities. In 2015 North America spent an estimated $619 billion on defense while all of NATO Europe spent $253 billion.
The U.S. can no longer afford to pay such a large share of Europe’s defense and, at the same time, act as the major guarantor of stability in Asia where we must address the threats posed by North Korea and China; Europe needs to do more for itself.
(Financial Information Source: NATO Secretary General’s Annual Report, 2015)