Editorial Board
How Europe Can Defend Itself
Part of the answer lies in a more flexible (and less America-dominated) NATO.
How many are European and how many American?
Photographer: Matej DiviznaSay this for Donald Trump: He is forcing Europeans to think more seriously about how to protect and defend their continent.
The U.S. president’s disparagement of NATO goes too far, and his focus on getting Europeans to spend more on defense is misplaced. That said, European nations have for too long treated their defense budgets as an extension of social policy. Expenditure on personnel is more than 50 percent of military spending in nearly all EU countries, compared with about a quarter in the U.S. Meanwhile, spending on equipment and R&D is barely 20 percent in Europe, compared with around 30 percent in the U.S., and only about 22 percent of equipment procurement is collaborative.