The Future of NATO

Shortly before his retirement from the position of U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates made a speech regarding the future of NATO. Support of NATO has been a fixture of U.S. foreign policy since 1949, but the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991 calls its purpose into question. Even though NATO membership has grown since the end of the Cold War, the United States still provides the lion's share of military support for the alliance. As Gates noted in his speech, there is a "two-tiered" membership structure where there are members "willing to and able to pay the price and bear the burdens of commitments, and those who enjoy the benefits of NATO membership but don’t want to share the risks and the costs." Europe's military spending has continued to drop over the last decade or so in comparison with the United States. Looking at the military budget's of all of NATO for 2010, the United States leads with 687 billion dollars, trailed distantly by France and the UK with 61 and 57 billion dollars respectively. Even if you combine the military budgets of the rest of NATO together, the United States still spends about twice as much each year as all of the rest of the alliance.


Although every member still gets an equal seat at NATO's master planning conference table.

The NATO military interventions in Afghanistan and Libya certainly show the differences in military strength and willingness to fight between the United States and its allies. Looking at Afghanistan, for example, the United States currently has 90,000 soldiers deployed, more than double the rest of the International Security Assistance Force combined. The initial air campaign against the Taliban was also largely led by the United States, including helicopters, carrier-based airstrikes, and AC-130 gunship assaults.


American air-power at work.

Even though every NATO member endorsed intervention in Libya, more than half have not contributed anything at all to the effort. Even the NATO allies that did deploy aircraft to Libya are sometimes placed under severe restrictions by their home countries that limit their usefulness. For example, many allies deploying aircraft to Libya only authorize their air forces to enforce the no-fly zone and not conduct any bombing at all. This means that they may shoot down Libyan aircraft in the air. As there are no Libyan aircraft flying around anymore, that's not a very challenging task.


Mr. Gates sees a problem with this situation.

The question becomes, will the United States continue to provide the bulk of funding and military support for this alliance when the rest of the allies are not contributing an equal share of the budget? Given the current financial problems in the United States, it seems likely that NATO contributions will be one promising area to cut in the future.


After all, these things are expensive!

Conclusion
The contributions of NATO members to conflicts in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Libya are certainly appreciated by the United States, but the unequal military contributions of the United States and the rest of the alliance will lead to tension in the future. It may reduce the importance of NATO or simply end the alliance altogether. Europe needs to take more responsibility for their own defense and not rely on the United States to take the lead in every major military action.


Particularly when a little bit of ocean separates the United States from the conflict zones in North Africa and the Middle East.