The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has laid bare the woeful state of European defense. For decades Europe has been reliant on an American security blanket, one that has put Europe’s various defense departments to sleep. Putin’s recent belligerence has given them a loud wake-up call. What they will do about the aggression on their frontier remains to be seen.
Hopefully, Europe’s leaders will finally begin to pull their weight on providing for their own defense and fro the maintenance of NATO. Currently America makes up the lion’s share of NATO forces and spends a vastly disproportionate amount of its GDP on the task. The United Kingdom is the only major EU power that spends more than 2 percent of its GDP on defense. The rest have seemed happy to spend their cash on unaffordable social programs in the hope that America will always be there to protect them.
It’s about time that America made a stand on defense spending in Europe. It is ludicrous to expect the United States to spend more on defending Europe than the Europeans are willing to. Now that Putin has increased his warmongering, many of Europe’s leaders have finally started to agree. While it is still far too early to declare that Europe is definitely going to shoulder the task of ensuring its own security, we are now seeing positive steps, taken through the NATO alliance, to meaningfully increase the share of Europe’s burden on the maintenance of its defense. Member countries in Europe have agreed to increase their defense spending to more adequately address security concerns.
This is a good sign for America. We have spent a vast fortune trying to maintain peace and security in the world, to mixed success. We cannot afford to be the sole guarantor of international order forever. What we need is other responsible, democratic nations to shoulder a larger part of that burden. It will benefit the US taxpayer and add legitimacy to a global order that favors free markets and the rule of law. Europe, America’s partner in liberal-democratic values, must be ready to share in the effort of sustaining peace on its borders, and in the world.
