NATO Reinvigorated

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Russia has made NATO matter again.

The transatlantic military alliance?has a new threat against which to unite.?The security of Europe is at stake.?The U.S. will play an essential role in both strengthening the NATO military deterrent?and shoring up the continent’s energy supplies.?A few years ago, NATO was in rough shape,?with various alliance members at odds over defense spending, troop stationing and more.?

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Now, Washington is sending more troops, planes, ships and other hardware. Moreover, the Army is planning a new permanent base in Poland.?Allies are ponying up more defense dollars.?In 2014, just three of NATO’s then 28 members spent the alliance’s required 2% of GDP on defense: The U.S., U.K. and Greece. Today, nine do, and a total?of 19 have plans to meet the 2% threshold by 2024.?

Plus, new countries are joining the alliance.

Sweden and Finland will bring the total number?of member states to 32. Both already cooperated with NATO to some degree. Their advanced militaries will greatly improve the alliance’s ability to project power in the nearby Baltic region.?

It’s the biggest buildup since the Cold War, which should be a boon to U.S. arms exporters . Several NATO members rank among the top buyers of American weaponry, including the U.K., the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark.?And while Washington is ready to help defend Europe from Russia militarily…?

Securing the continent economically will be much more difficult.

The U.S. has already discovered in its efforts to help wean Europe off Russian energy supplies.?Prior to its invasion of Ukraine, Russia supplied 40% of the continent’s natural gas, 25% of its oil and 10% of the diesel fuel it consumes. Via European sanctions and Russian export restrictions, supplies have dwindled, and prices have spiked .?

The U.S. has tried to make up the shortfall by increasing exports of diesel and LNG…liquefied natural gas. But it can only do so much. Meanwhile, European efforts?to replace natural gas with nuclear and renewable power will take years to pan out.?Trying to forswear Russian energy imports may prove unsustainable.?

Another big question facing the alliance: How to handle China.

Heretofore, Europe has been less enthusiastic than the U.S. about confronting Beijing. Now, China’s continued support of Russia…despite Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine…plus Beijing’s investments in new military technology are changing that calculus.?Are we on the cusp of a new Cold War between NATO, Russia and China ??Time will tell. If so, it will be complicated, namely by the fact that the U.S. and its NATO allies are so economically dependent on their major adversaries.?

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