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The principle is interdependency, but in practice many European militaries don't have a ton to give. Since the cold war ended, many just sort of coasted on mili
by TulliusCicero 3y ago
The principle is interdependency, but in practice many European militaries don't have a ton to give. Since the cold war ended, many just sort of coasted on military spending.
Of course, since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, that's changed for a lot of them. There's renewed interest in taking the defense budget seriously.
- dragonwriter 3y ago> Since the cold war ended, many just sort of coasted on military spending. So did the US until the 2001 (and, actually, the free fall in US military spending relative to GDP started well before the end of the cold war), and by the 2010s it was back falling in the US, too. > Of course, since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, that's changed for a lot of them. It actually changed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 for the non-US members of NATO (which was also the trigger for the NATO defense spending target.) It changed for the US after the 2022 escalation (US defense spending as a share of GDP declined between 2014 and the 2022 escalation.)
- TulliusCicero 3y agoYeah, no. The US reduced spending, that's true, but it never dropped nearly as low as so many European countries. > by the 2010s it was back falling in the US, too. Because of the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan winding down, no? > It actually changed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 for the non-US members of NATO (which was also the trigger for the NATO defense spending target.) It changed for the US after the 2022 escalation (US defense spending as a share of GDP declined between 2014 and the 2022 escalation.) Not really, no. The US took Russia's 2014 invasion more seriously than most of Western Europe did.
- secondary_op 3y ago[flagged]