“We cannot continue to pay for Europe’s military protection while NATO nations are not paying their fair share.”
Most people probably think that this position belongs to Donald Trump, but they are wrong, because the first person to raise this issue was President John F. Kennedy speaking to the U.S. National Security Council in 1963.
Since then Americans, both Republicans and Democrats have been asking European governments to take responsibility for their defense. These appeals were too often ignored, especially after the end of the Cold War.
For too long, Western Europeans believed that a new war on the European continent was no longer possible. Even today, some European politicians still seem convinced that what is happening in Ukraine will never reach their lands.
This year, at least 20 of NATO’s 32 members will spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense—a move in the right direction but one that is taking place very slowly, because what most people in Europe refuse to understand is that deterrence, however costly, remains less costly than war.
One only has to see that the estimated cost of rebuilding Ukraine has reached almost half a trillion dollars and is increasing day by day, while the cost of human life and suffering caused by the war is incalculable.
Europe must stop chasing the illusion of a common European army because there is no political will among the member states of the European Union to merge their national armed forces.
There will never be such an army, but it is possible to have better European armies.
As American politicians now openly support the need for Washington to focus on its competition with Beijing, it is now necessary for Europe to find its stride long before it sees the Transatlantic Alliance decline at its expense.
If Washington truly believes that China is its “greatest geopolitical adversary and its most important long-term priority,” as CIA Director William Burns argues, then the United States’ network of alliances should not be taken for granted.
China’s cooperation with Russia strengthens the argument for the creation of a new front in which Iran, Turkey, North Korea, and other states participate.
In Africa, South America and other parts of the so-called global South, state-sponsored media based in China, Iran and Russia spread their propaganda freely, often with the help of local regimes.
With the world on the brink of a global competition between two blocs—competing economically, militarily and for the hearts and minds of humanity—even the most powerful superpower needs allies, and despite its shortcomings, Europe remains a strong US ally. Europe needs to invest more in security, but not because of a possible break with the US over NATO, but to protect together with the US Democracy and the Western way of life.