The good news is that 20 out of 31 NATO countries are going to increase their defense spending to at least the 2 percent of GDP agreed to in 2014, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced ahead of the annual NATO summit, which starts today in Washington.
The bad news is that 20 NATO members are going to increase their defense spending to 2 percent of GDP.
Why bad news? Because it’s time to recognize that policymakers have been chasing the wrong metric, one that has caused friction, frustration, and heartburn on both sides of the Atlantic. Instead of measuring members’ defense budgets, the better approach would be to examine how countries can contribute directly to building a defense arsenal for the 21st century—including unmanned aerial and undersea vehicles (UAVs, UUVs) and hypersonic weapons—as well as contending with outer space as a contested domain.
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