In a new Center Square op-ed, “NATO Must Become a Coalition of the Growing,” Michael Lucci highlights President Trump’s historic achievement at the NATO summit: nearly all alliance members agreed to spend 5% of GDP on defense by 2035. However, Lucci argues that military spending alone isn’t enough. For NATO to thrive in an era of rising authoritarian threats, the alliance must also commit to reviving economic growth, especially in stagnating Western European economies.
In his op-ed, Lucci writes:
” President Donald Trump recently secured a historic victory at the NATO summit, as all but one alliance member committed to spending 5% of GDP on defense by 2035. Trump’s goal is essential for reversing decades of underinvestment and restoring NATO’s hard power to protect the free world against rising authoritarianism.
NATO members should make a second commitment to bolster the first: NATO must become a coalition of the growing. Western Europe’s economic stagnation results in a weaker continent that implicitly shifts the defense burden to the faster-growing U.S. Weak growth also exposes NATO allies to hostile adversaries like Russia and China. While spending a larger slice of the economic pie on defense will improve deterrence, growing the economic pie will fully revitalize the alliance.”
Read the full article “NATO Must Become a Coalition of the Growing” at The Center Square.
