What Does Trump Want From NATO? (Besides More Money)

U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has shaken seven decades of American defense policy. Trump maintains that most members of the military alliance connecting the U.S., Canada and Europe fail to pay their “fair share” for the common defense. (The U.S. bears the heaviest military costs.) He’s gone so far as to raise questions about the U.S. commitment to the alliance’s key doctrine that an armed attack against any member is considered an attack against all.

Since it was founded in 1949 to protect Europe against Soviet attack during the Cold War, NATO has expanded its role to include bombing Serb forces during the Bosnia and Kosovo wars of the 1990s, enforcing an arms embargo on Libya in 2011, helping Europe tackle a flood of Middle Eastern refugees that erupted in 2015, and stepping up cyber defense. In addition, since Russia’s encroachment in Ukraine in 2014, the alliance has refocused on the military threat from Moscow, deploying multinational battle groups in eastern Europe to reassure allies there and upgrading its command structure for the first time since the end of the Cold War. All the while, NATO’s membership has grown from 12 to 29 countries, with Montenegro joining in June 2017.