NATO Has Worse Problems Than Donald Trump

MATTHEW GAULT

Source Link

Donald Trump is president-elect and things don’t look good for NATO. While on the campaign trail, candidate Trump played fast and loose with America’s commitment to the alliance. In the days since his win, he’s reached out to other U.S. allies to ally fears but has yet to reach out to NATO.

That’s bad. The alliance has a lot of problems and a looming threat. It needs America more than ever. A recent RAND Corporation report chided the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for being, well, weak. According to the study, Russia could overwhelm member states Estonia and Latvia in just three days.

NATO lingered long after the Cold War ended and spent the 1990s searching for a purpose. Lately, a resurgent Russia seems to justify the alliance’s continuing existence. But despite the Russian threat, today many NATO members fail to meet their treaty obligations. Only five countries spend the required two percent of GDP on defense.

This week on War College, we sit down with Joseph Trevithick to discuss NATO’s successes — and many, many failings.