NATO Enters the Trump Era Archive

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about NATO members’ contributions to and relationships with the alliance. This year, troops from the Netherlands arrived in Lithuania to participate in a German-led battalion that is part of a broader NATO effort to bolster defenses near Russia; similar battalions are deploying in Poland, Latvia and Estonia. The deployment coincides with rising support within the Netherlands to increase defense spending, which was scaled back during the first half of this decade. Both developments reflect the realization, in the Netherlands and across Europe, that European militaries need to ramp up efforts […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about NATO members’ contributions to and relationships with the alliance. While Greece continues to be one of only five NATO countries meeting the alliance goal of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense, economic contractions in recent years have meant that the amount of real investment has decreased considerably. However, because of long-running security concerns such as the perceived threat posed by Turkey and new challenges like the migration crisis, the portion of the budget going to defense is expected to remain relatively high. In an email interview, Dr. Thanos […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about NATO members’ contributions to and relationships with the alliance. Just days before the recent NATO summit in Brussels, Turkey moved to block Austria’s involvement in alliance operations, the latest example of how Turkey’s various rifts with European countries threaten alliance cohesiveness. Turkey’s relationship with NATO is also being tested by divergent views on how best to combat the self-styled Islamic State. In an email interview, Emre Caliskan, a Turkish analyst and co-author of “The New Turkey and Its Discontents,” describes Turkey’s traditional role in NATO and how it might […]

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series about NATO members’ contributions to and relationships with the alliance. Since joining NATO in 1999, the Czech Republic has been able to modernize its military capabilities while gaining extensive experience with the alliance’s expeditionary missions. But concerns about security in Eastern Europe have caused the government’s focus to shift toward collective defense. In an email interview, Zdenek Kríž, an associate professor of political science at Masaryk University, explains why support for NATO remains high among the Czech population as well as the country’s political and defense establishment. WPR: What is […]