DemDaily: Overshadowing NATO
July 11, 2024
World leaders from 32 North American and European countries come together in Washington this week for a meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to celebrate the 75th year of its alliance.
The meeting comes at a critical point in history for the United States as the US presidential election between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump looms large, threatening the future security of our country's relationship with other global leaders.
| NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance formed in 1949 with the purpose of providing a collective defense whereby its independent member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. |
History
Formed in the aftermath of World War II to counter the threat of Soviet expansionism, the foundational goal of NATO was to secure peace in Europe, promote cooperation amongst member countries, and collectively guard their freedom.
Originally comprising 12 member countries, it "commits its Allies to democracy, to individual liberty and the rule of law, as well as peaceful resolution to disputes."
The founding nations aimed to ensure that the security of European and North American members were inseparably linked, with the understanding that an attack against one ally is an attack against all allies.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, NATO expanded its mission to working with non-member countries as well as international organizations, including the United Nations and the European Union (EU). It has also continued to modernize to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex international security environment.
NATO's first coordinated military operation, against ethnic cleansing by Serbian separatist forces in former Yugoslavia, helped bring an end to the Bosnian War in 1995. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, NATO partners deployed forces to Afghanistan to counter-terrorism and drug trafficking
During the Arab Spring in 2011 it led an air campaign over Libya in response to the Gaddafi regime's suppression of civilian dissent, and today, NATO is the collective force driving support for Ukraine against Russian aggression.
How It Works
There is no NATO army. Each member state volunteers and pays for its own armed forces and their deployment, and is part of a cost-sharing agreement based on a percentage of each country's economy. NATO's goal is to have each member contribute 2% of their GDP (Gross Domestic Product) by 2024. Currently, 11 member states, including the US and United Kingdom, contribute at or above this threshold.
The Threat Within
Unquestionably, the most contentious period of the US' membership in NATO came during the Trump administration, when the former president "recklessly" disregarded decades of established diplomatic norms, described by former CIA Director John Brennan at the time as "dangerously naive and grossly ignorant of how the world works."
During the 2018 NATO Summit in Belgium, Trump lambasted allies for allegedly underpaying their portion of dues, saying he would let Russia "do whatever the hell they want" to any NATO member that hasn't paid up, then meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin separately while overseas, which he described as an "honor."
At the 2019 Summit in London, Trump stormed out, leaving early after footage emerged of heads of other member states appearing to privately mock Trump.
Just hours after Biden praised NATO as "the bulwark of global security" at the opening ceremonies in Washington on Tuesday, Trump condemned the alliance, which he had "never heard of" before being elected in 2016, at a rally in Florida. Describing NATO as a "virtual protection racket," Trump declared that he would abandon “delinquent” members to the mercies of Russian invaders.
The threat that, under a Trump presidency, the United States would abandon its mutual defense obligations under Article V of the NATO treaty, or pull out of NATO altogether, was a clear topic of concern during the conference.
While Biden tried to assure world leaders of his ability to beat Trump in November and protect the United States from what writer David Rothkopf penned today is "a political party that is pro-Putin, pro-Russian, pro-aggression, pro-war crimes, pro-authoritarianism and anti-NATO, anti-Ukraine and most importantly, anti-American national interests" -- Trump was meeting with Hungary's authoritarian President Victor Orban at Mar-a-Lago.
| Orban, who recently visited Putin in Moscow and praised Trump as a "self-made man" with a "different approach to everything," claimed Trump's reelection would "be good for the world politics." |
Tonight Biden held a high-stakes press conference regarding the NATO summit with his foreign policy expertise clearly on display. While generally engaging and articulate, the president, at the end of a long day, was not without gaffs that will no doubt be used against him by those escalating the pressure for him to exit the presidential race.
In short, the jury is still out.
DemList will keep you informed.
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Kimberly Scott
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Sources: CNN, Politico, NATO, CBS
