Transatlantic Defense Troubles
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Authors
Weitz, Richard
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Advisors
Date of Issue
2011-12
Date
Winter 2011
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
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Abstract
In his last major policy speech as Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates on June 10 made his most public rebuke ever of Europe‘s failure to provide adequate defense resources in international missions. Before a meeting of the influential Security and Defense Agenda in Brussels, Gates complained that NATO had finally become what he had long feared: a "two-tiered alliance" divided between those few allies that engage in "hard" combat missions and the overwhelming majority of those members that can only contribute extensively to "soft" non-combat humanitarian, peacekeeping, and development missions. Gates noted that proposed NATO-wide reforms and efficiency measures would at best have a limited impact; ultimately, our European allies would need to spend more on defense. He cited the Libyan campaign as providing ample evidence of the problems arising from lackluster European defense spending.
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Article
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Citation
Strategic Insights, v.10, issue 3 (Winter 2011)
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.