In 2006, NATO Defence Ministers agreed to commit a minimum of 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to defence spending to continue to ensure the Alliance’s military readiness.
I agree with you but to be honest the graph’s point is only to rouse you, not to prove a rational point or start a reasonable conversation.
If the complaint is that members aren’t contributing 2% of gdp it certainly doesn’t highlight the fact how close these countries are in that respect. It only highlights the total amount of expenditure of the USA compared to countries that are much much smaller such as Greece that happens to contribute more per gdp than the USA.
Perhaps the biggest problem however is that the expenditure in the graph is NOT the amount of money that goes toward NATO, it’s total military spending which is a different thing entirely.
If only there was time to scratch beyond the surface whenever we see an infograph:
I think it would be interesting to have the same graph based on projected spending for 2024, because I know a lot of those countries which were under 2% now have voted through budgets that are above 2% in 2023/2024.
Funny how few of the people who mention that Trump pressed NATO members about their defense spending mention that both Obama and Bush also repeatedly pressed NATO about this …
Hate to say it, but Trump had a point when he complained about NATO members’ expenditure.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_49198.htm
I agree with you but to be honest the graph’s point is only to rouse you, not to prove a rational point or start a reasonable conversation.
If the complaint is that members aren’t contributing 2% of gdp it certainly doesn’t highlight the fact how close these countries are in that respect. It only highlights the total amount of expenditure of the USA compared to countries that are much much smaller such as Greece that happens to contribute more per gdp than the USA.
Perhaps the biggest problem however is that the expenditure in the graph is NOT the amount of money that goes toward NATO, it’s total military spending which is a different thing entirely.
If only there was time to scratch beyond the surface whenever we see an infograph:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/03/nato-defence-spending-europe-america/
I think it would be interesting to have the same graph based on projected spending for 2024, because I know a lot of those countries which were under 2% now have voted through budgets that are above 2% in 2023/2024.
Here’s where we are now, it’s changed quite a bit and will change even more next year
Funny how few of the people who mention that Trump pressed NATO members about their defense spending mention that both Obama and Bush also repeatedly pressed NATO about this …