Nato: all aboard
Nations cannot be allowed to free-ride.
Earlier in this series I argued that all Nato members need to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence.
Putin shows no sign of backing down, and internal opposition within Russia is weak to non-existent. As Lawrie Freedman points out on his excellent substack, peace in Ukraine will be hard to achieve.
The tides within the US are running towards Donald Trump, the most isolationist American leader for 75 years. His selection of JD Vance as running mate reinforces isolationism. I understand America questioning why Europe should not contribute at the same rate.
No-one should expect Europe to make a meaningful contribution to facing down China militarily, but it is only fair that we lead in facing down Russia in Europe. Russia has a population less than a third that of the European allies, and Russia’s national income is less than half that of the UK alone.1 We can do this, and we should.
I am therefore pleased that European countries are overwhelmingly increasing defence spending.
My heroes are Finland and Sweden. Both have been neutral for years, and both applied to join Nato in 2022. They have massively increased defence spending in the last five years, and both are now above the 2% recommended Nato level.2 Bravo.
If Finland and Sweden are my heroes, then Ireland, Switzerland and Austria are my villains. They need to join Nato. I don’t care what their constitutions say. I don’t care about their histories. I care about the brute reality of life today.
And here is the brute reality of how we can make them join NATO…