Nato’s sinking feeling

Hello,

Until the first election of Donald Trump in 2016, western leaders talked about Nato as if it were an alliance of equals. Sure the US had a far bigger defence budget, and yes the Supreme Allied Commander Europe is always an American, but decision-making was by unanimity. The truth, Bernard Gray argues in The Observer today, is that Nato has always been an American military organisation with a thin veneer of Europe (and Canada) painted on top. “Intelligence and military plans are first developed [by the US], until the US decides which parts of the plans are to be shared with other Nato members,” he writes. “The US is the eyes, ears, brain and skeleton of the body.” The difference between the pre-Trump era and today is that America used to be relatively happy with the arrangement. Now, though, everything has changed. A Nato member is being threatened with military action – by another Nato member. “It seems that the US is no longer hugely interested in determining what happens in European security,” writes Bernard. “But without the US, there really is no Nato.”