“I’m here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe,” were the words of Pete Hegseth, the US Defense Secretary, as he made his first address to Nato nations.
And quite right too. The world is a bigger and more dangerous place than it was three decades ago when the Berlin Wall fell and European nations took the so called “peace dividend”, which for many meant allowing their militaries to quietly and inexpensively rust away.
It is perfectly true that for the USA the threat from a peer competitor, China, presents a much more pressing threat than that of Russia or elsewhere. With the People’s Liberation Army Navy growing by the size of the entire Royal Navy every year and with a multi-hundred-billion dollar technology contest underway, China must be America’s prime concern and US allies in the area need help more than Europe should. Both Japan and South Korea are facing devastating demographic downturns, and the South Koreans have the double extra misery of living next door to a deranged hermit Kingdom and still being in the aftermath of an attempted coup d’etat. The threat to Taiwan is clear and China is rapidly acquiring advanced military technologies: these include unique nuclear/battery hybrid submarines and capable hypersonic and space weapons. The Aukus alliance – which might soon include Japan – is a start but nowhere near sufficient to the clear threat.
By comparison an underspending European Nato alliance, with some of its nations – notably France and Germany – flirting with the notion of a European Army, which would be a rival to US power rather than an ally, cannot expect the US to pay for what they should be paying for themselves. Recent reports from the Danish intelligence service make it clear that the threat from Russia is very real. Yet there is little sign of European nations, with the exception of some of those actually on Russia’s border, doing very much about it.
We must remember however that President Trump is a showman and a businessman. It was Jens Stoltenberg, former head of Nato, who noted that President Trump’s rhetoric during his first term loosened European purse strings better than ever before. But this time is different: China power has swollen massively since then and what Pete Hegseth says is true.
We need to dig deeper into our national pockets. We should never have become so dependent on the USA, and now that even mighty America finds itself overstretched, it behoves us to look to our own defences.
“I’m here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark realities prevent the United States from being the primary guarantor of security in Europe,” were the words of Pete Hegseth, the US Defense Secretary, as he made his first address to Nato nations.
And quite right too. The world is a bigger and more dangerous place than it was three decades ago when the Berlin Wall fell and European nations took the so called “peace dividend”, which for many meant allowing their militaries to quietly and inexpensively rust away.
It is perfectly true that for the USA the threat from a peer competitor, China, presents a much more pressing threat than that of Russia or elsewhere. With the People’s Liberation Army Navy growing by the size of the entire Royal Navy every year and with a multi-hundred-billion dollar technology contest underway, China must be America’s prime concern and US allies in the area need help more than Europe should. Both Japan and South Korea are facing devastating demographic downturns, and the South Koreans have the double extra misery of living next door to a deranged hermit Kingdom and still being in the aftermath of an attempted coup d’etat. The threat to Taiwan is clear and China is rapidly acquiring advanced military technologies: these include unique nuclear/battery hybrid submarines and capable hypersonic and space weapons. The Aukus alliance – which might soon include Japan – is a start but nowhere near sufficient to the clear threat.
By comparison an underspending European Nato alliance, with some of its nations – notably France and Germany – flirting with the notion of a European Army, which would be a rival to US power rather than an ally, cannot expect the US to pay for what they should be paying for themselves. Recent reports from the Danish intelligence service make it clear that the threat from Russia is very real. Yet there is little sign of European nations, with the exception of some of those actually on Russia’s border, doing very much about it.
We must remember however that President Trump is a showman and a businessman. It was Jens Stoltenberg, former head of Nato, who noted that President Trump’s rhetoric during his first term loosened European purse strings better than ever before. But this time is different: China power has swollen massively since then and what Pete Hegseth says is true.
We need to dig deeper into our national pockets. We should never have become so dependent on the USA, and now that even mighty America finds itself overstretched, it behoves us to look to our own defences.