PJTV’s Bill Whittle hosts a thoughtful discussion of “NATO at 60” and whether the United States still needs the Alliance.
Foundation for the Defense of Democracies president Clifford D. May argues that NATO is still necessary but is “over the hill” and needs major reform. His younger colleague Megan Ortagus, the FDD’s director of policy coalitions, notes that she has no personal recollection of NATO’s heydey but that the gross disparity in military power and spending within the Alliance has rendered it quite literally a joke.
Retired Army colonel and Columbia PhD Austin Bay responds that “I’ve heard all this before.” Even in the 1970s, we had questions of burden sharing and then again in 1983 during the deployment of Pershing II missiles, and then with the end of the Cold Water. Further, he argues that “NATO is in the process of constantly being reinvented” and that the fact that so many countries want to join is proof positive that others see it as a vital, worthwhile institution.
I commend the entire 20 minute discussion to you.
James Joyner is managing editor of the Atlantic Council.