NATO Alliance Needs New Direction on Russia and China

As leaders from 32 NATO countries gather in Washington this week, their agenda will resemble the one from last year’s summit in Lithuania. Time will be devoted to the sticky issue of meeting NATO members’ 2014 pledge to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense, as well as to combating terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation, ballistic missile defense, and climate change — and of course the war in Ukraine.

Yet the war is the issue that threatens to tear the alliance apart. Biden’s boastful claim that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine gave new life and purpose to NATO has proved premature. Polls in one NATO country after another show a growing dissatisfaction with the course of the war, as the prospect of Ukraine’s winning fades and the cost of support shows no sign of abating.

About the Author

Arthur Herman

Arthur Herman is a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II.

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As leaders from 32 NATO countries gather in Washington this week, their agenda will resemble the one from last year’s summit in Lithuania. Time will be devoted to the sticky issue of meeting NATO members’ 2014 pledge to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense, as well as to combating terrorism, nuclear nonproliferation, ballistic missile defense, and climate change — and of course the war in Ukraine.

Yet the war is the issue that threatens to tear the alliance apart. Biden’s boastful claim that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine gave new life and purpose to NATO has proved premature. Polls in one NATO country after another show a growing dissatisfaction with the course of the war, as the prospect of Ukraine’s winning fades and the cost of support shows no sign of abating.

About the Author

Arthur Herman

Arthur Herman is a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II.