Nic Houghton
NATO, also known as The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is a political and military defence treaty signed by 29 nations, created in 1949. Upon NATO’s creation there were only 12 nations part of the treaty. The biggest six nations within the original 12 were Italy, France, The United Kingdom, The United States, Luxembourg, and Canada. The original purpose of NATO was to counter the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact was an alliance between the Soviets and their puppet states after WW2, and during the cold war, when the possibility of another world war was very high.
You might be wondering, what is the purpose of NATO–well it’s complicated. The most important thing to know about NATO is that if any nation that is part of NATO is under attack from another nation, the other members of NATO have to join the fight. But, as stated in article six of the NATO treaty, it only works if the attack is on the territory of the nations part of NATO, on the territories of Turkey, or if the attack is on any troops apart of a NATO country–regardless of what territory they are on.
Now onto the modern controversy. You might have heard about the 70th anniversary NATO meeting that was canceled in Denmark due to the U.S. ambassador’s refusal to attend a meeting that has an anti-Trump speaker, Mr. Sloan. Due to the political heat surrounding Trump's presidency, this article will be more focused on the views on NATO by French President Emmanuel Macron. When America posted retreat from the lands held by the Kurds in the wake of the Turkish invasion, Macron declared NATO to be “Brain Dead.” With the 29 nations required to spend around 2% of their GDP (gross domestic product), and NATO’s original purpose long gone, Macron’s views can be considered justified. Trump has responded to Macron’s comments by insulting him and his country saying, “I think they have a very high unemployment rate in France. France is not doing well economically at all.” The unemployment rate in France is 8.6%. This is low when compared to other NATO members, such as, Italy, 9.7%, Spain, 13.92%, Montenegro, 15.51%, and Greece 16.7%. Economically, France has the 3rd highest GDP in Europe, and the 6th highest GDP in the world.
The real big killer of NATO is the thing that kills many systems, funding. Out of the required spending, only five nations are above the NATO requirements for funding. When looking at the 5th graph curve line on the previous source, the funding is being carried by America. For the next numbers, remember 2% is the NATO requirement. America puts 3.42% of their GDP towards NATO, the average of the rest of NATO members is 1.55%, so the entirety of NATO’s spending percent is 2.51% GDP. Let's be real, percents don’t mean much, so here’s a dollar value of the amount of GDP spent. America is spending 685 billion dollars on NATO alone. $685,000,000,000 compared to the $299,000,000,000 the rest of the alliance is giving. With this much money flowing out of not only America, but all other nations, it seems like unnecessary spending. Even with more allies joining NATO, the amount of personnel has gone down. The power of the Alliance is very centralized, as 19 offices are being controlled by 12 different nations, and Germany alone controls 5 of the offices. With the complex structure of NATO, bigger nations with centralized power, and the lack of cooperative funding, it can be seen that NATO has long outlived its purpose.
For the European nations, the alliance doesn’t help them out much, as the majority of the NATO nations being apart of the EU. The EU has a law in place called the European Defence Agency, a system setup for all EU nation’s military to work together in conflicts. This system also requires a portion of a nation’s GNI (Gross National Income) making the NATO costs seem overbearing for some nations. With all of this considered, the views held by President Emmanuel Macron about NATO is justified. France doesn’t need to be held down by two separate alliances, the EU and NATO. With the EU having similar military protections for member nations, as well as economical help, the EU seems like a better choice for not only France, but the other nations apart of both alliances as well.
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