{"id":297848,"date":"2025-07-07T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=297848"},"modified":"2025-07-02T09:07:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T08:07:24","slug":"the-north-atlantic-treaty-organizations-hallucinations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/07\/the-north-atlantic-treaty-organizations-hallucinations\/","title":{"rendered":"The North Atlantic Treaty Organization\u2019s Hallucinations"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and NATO Heads of State and Government. Photo: NATO<\/p><\/div>\n

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Having agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the European states have created a series of problems for themselves.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

30 Jun 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0By the end of the annual meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in The Hague in June 2025, it became clear that everything was about money. In fact, the final communiqu\u00e9<\/a> was perhaps the shortest of any NATO meeting \u2013 only five points, two about money and one to thank the Netherlands for hosting the summit. The Hague Declaration was only 427 words, whereas in the previous year, the Washington Declaration<\/a> was 5,400 words and ran to 44 paragraphs. This time, there was not the granular detail about this or that threat, nor the long and detailed assessments of the war in Ukraine and how NATO supports that war without limit (\u201cUkraine\u2019s future is in NATO\u201d, the alliance said in 2024, a position no longer repeated in the brief statement of 2025). It was clear that the United States simply did not want to permit a laundry list of NATO\u2019s obsessions. It was instead the US obsession that prevailed: that Europe increase its military spending to compensate for the US protective shield around the continent.<\/p>\n

Having agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the European states have created a series of problems for themselves.<\/p>\n

The first problem is that they would have to invent the money out of their tight budgets. To raise their military expenditure to 5% of GDP would require them to reduce their social spending \u2013 in other words, to deepen the austerity policies that are already in place. In Germany, for instance, 21.1% of the population faces<\/a> the risk of poverty or social exclusion. The German government, led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has pledged \u20ac650 billion over the next five years to the military \u2013 an amount even the Financial Times finds<\/a> to be \u201cstaggering\u201d. To get to 5% of GDP, Germany, for instance, will have to raise about \u20ac144 billion per year out of reallocating budgets (austerity) and increased borrowing (debt); raising taxes is unlikely, even if these are regressive Value Added Taxes on consumption.<\/p>\n

The second problem is that despite the disbursement of money to the military, Europe simply does not have the production lines ready to roll out tanks and missiles at the required pace. Unlike the United States, Europe began to deindustrialize its military sector after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It will now have to spend considerable sums of money just to recover its industrial potential. Over the past few years, European military industrial firms have struggled to meet the needs of Ukraine, with the European Union unable<\/a> to meet the one million artillery shells requirement in 2024. Rheinmetall, meanwhile, is only able to produce<\/a> 150 Leopard 2 tanks per year, far below what European companies built during the Cold War and far below the needs of a European army if it must be on the battlefield against Russia. Neither the Eurofighter Typhoon nor the Dassault Rafale fighter jets can be produced quickly. Procurement offices across Europe are slowed down by European Union regulations and customs requirements. No rapid growth of the military will be possible.<\/p>\n

The 5% of GDP number is more public relations than reality.<\/p>\n

Threats<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Hague Summit Declaration says that the Euro-Atlantic alliance faces \u201cprofound security threats and challenges\u201d. Who threatens the Euro-Atlantic? The only adversary named in the Declaration is Russia. But around the time that the NATO members met in The Hague, US President Donald Trump spoke<\/a> with Russian President Vladimir Putin about de-escalation in Ukraine and ending the tensions around Europe, and the Istanbul Talks continued among the various parties involved in ending the war. If there is a ceasefire in Ukraine and if Russia and Europe agree on certain security guarantees, then what is the 5% of GDP increase in military spending about?<\/p>\n

Even if Russia ends the war in Ukraine, there are several other concerns that the NATO members have insisted define their increase in military spending. For instance, the NATO member states in Europe have allowed their military facilities to deteriorate, which from a peace standpoint is acceptable but not from one that anticipates war (the military lobby in Europe has especially pointed to the continent\u2019s laxity around cyberattacks and weaponized Artificial Intelligence \u2013 although how rebuilding barracks will help with this is unclear). The Baltic states have sounded the alarm against a potential Russian invasion, while the instability around Iran has alerted Europe to dangers near its borders. These are some of the reasons given by war intellectuals in Europe for the necessity of increased military spending.<\/p>\n

But by far the most important reason has nothing to do with Europe\u2019s borders or with threats to Europe: China. In NATO\u2019s Strategic Concept 2022, it considered<\/a> China to be \u201ca systemic challenge to Euro-American security\u201d. But in what way is China a threat to Europe? The United States sees China as its main rival, not in military terms, but in terms of the economic dominance of the US-based multinational corporations. Europe\u2019s countries have only benefited from Chinese investments, such as through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Of the 44 countries in Europe, 29 have signed<\/a> up to the BRI \u2013 most of these countries are in Europe\u2019s east, and two-thirds of European countries have signed<\/a> Memoranda of Understanding with China for trade and development. Italy departed from the BRI in December 2023, but the other countries remain committed to the BRI project. Of the thirty-two NATO member states, twelve have an agreement with China to be part of the BRI or some other major project (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, and T\u00fcrkiye). That these states are reliant upon China\u2019s economic buoyancy shows that they are not threatened by China, which begs the question of what threat NATO sees in China.<\/p>\n

The habit of austerity and war grips the NATO governments, while the Global South has committed itself to peace and development. It is striking how anachronistic The Hague Declaration sounds when placed alongside the slogan of the 17th BRICS Summit<\/a> in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in July 2025: Inclusive and Sustainable Global South (Sul Global Inclusivo e Sustent\u00e1vel).<\/p>\n

NATO has no real threats, only expensive hallucinations.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at<\/em> Globetrotter. He is the director of <\/em>Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research<\/em><\/a> and a senior non-resident fellow at <\/em>Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies<\/em><\/a>, Renmin University of China. He has written more than 20 books, including <\/em>The Darker Nations<\/a> and <\/em>The Poorer Nations<\/a>. His latest book is <\/em>Washington Bullets<\/a>, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 peoplesdispatch.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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