America does a lot for its European NATO allies. It protects it with 100,000-plus troops on 85 European bases.
By Tom Arms
Donald Trump is a transactional kind a guy. He is a businessman who measures success and failure in dollars and cents.
He works on the basis of if we do something for you then we expect tangible, easily measurable, rewards in return.
America does a lot for its European NATO allies. It protects it with 100,000-plus troops on 85 European bases. Its 5,000 nuclear warheads are an essential deterrent against the 6,000 Russian nuclear warheads.
In return, successive American administrations—not just Trump—have asked their European allies to spend two percent of their GDP on defense. Only a third do. America spends 3.6 percent of its GDP on its worldwide military establishment.
Trump—and a growing number of Republicans—think that NATO is a rotten deal for America. That the Europeans are financing their social welfare programs off the back of the American defensive umbrella.
So what does America get out of NATO? Quite a lot actually.
Let’s start by looking at what upsets the MAGA crowd the most—the balance sheet. Roughly half of all Europe’s military equipment is American-made. That is worth $400 billion a year to US weapons manufacturers. Those manufacturers employ an estimated two million people.
America’s NATO bases in Europe play a major role in projecting US power and influence beyond the European theatre of operations
The Biden Administration is pushing the Europeans to buy more American military hardware. The Europeans—led by the French—see the need to build up their own defense industries, spurred on by Trump’s anti-NATO rhetoric and the Republican congressmen’s blocking of military aid for Ukraine.
What about the cost of the American bases in Europe? The country with the largest number of US bases is Germany—40 altogether. Economists reckon that taking into account offset payments from Berlin and various other calculations that the net cost to the Pentagon of basing American troops in Germany is nil.
Of course, America’s leading role in NATO provides the US with massive political, economic and military benefits some of which can be easily calculated which are difficult to quantify in financial terms but play a major role in underpinning America’s role as the world’s most powerful nation.
First the easily measurable financial benefits: NATO protects America’s most stable and biggest market. In 2022 US exports to the EU totaled $592 billion and $158.2 billion to the UK. But perhaps more importantly, America also has considerable NATO-protected direct investments in Europe. In 2021 they were estimated to be worth more than $3.6 trillion dollars in the Euro area and UK combined.
Also read: Observations of an Expat: Ukraine and NATO
The political benefits are more difficult to quantify but still exceedingly valuable to the US. Washington can generally rely on the support of its NATO allies at the United Nations, dealing with terrorists and in relations with China, Iran and North Korea.
Europe is geographically situated to help America project its power and influence well beyond the European theatre of operations. America’s NATO bases in Europe play a major role in projecting US power and influence beyond the European theatre of operations.
The US base at Stuttgart in Germany is a command and control center for US operations in Europe and Africa. The giant American airbase at Ramstein is a vital stopover link between the US and Africa and the Middle East.
At the moment two American aircraft carrier groups are parked off the coast of Lebanon to keep Hezbollah in check. They are part of the US Sixth fleet based at Naples, Italy.
But most important to both America and its European allies is the Article Five clause of the NATO Treaty. This one for all and all for one clause commits every member of alliance to defend any member that is attacked. It is the commitment in that clause which Donald Trump has threatened to honor. In the 75-year history of NATO alliance the “Three Musketeers” clause has only be invoked once—to defend America in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
_________________
Tom Arms is foreign editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and the author of “The Encyclopedia of the Cold War” and “America Made in Britain.”
Also read: Observations of an Expat: In a Potsdam Hotel
