TRACKING NATO SPENDING


Trackers and Data Visualizations

Jun 20, 2025

NATO defense spending tracker

By
Kristen Taylor, Julia Salabert

The Transatlantic Security Initiative’s NATO defense spending tracker delves into data and figures to analyze current defense spending trends.

Europe & Eurasia
NATO

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Programs and initiatives

The Transatlantic Security Initiative, in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, shapes and influences the debate on the greatest security challenges facing the North Atlantic Alliance and its key partners.

Within the Atlantic Council’s longstanding commitment to strengthening the transatlantic relationship, the Atlantic Council Turkey Program conducts research, provides thought leadership, and offers a platform for strategic dialogue between the US, Turkey, and NATO allies to address the region’s toughest challenges and explore opportunities, including in the fields of energy, business & trade, technology, defense, and security.

Content

Defending democracy in the digital era

NATOSource

Oct 9, 2017

Time for a Cyber NATO?

By Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Washington Post

Beyond elections, cyberwarfare has made traditional rules governing armed conflict irrelevant.

Cybersecurity NATO

Defense Industrialist

Oct 3, 2017

The military implications of Catalonian secession—an update

By James Hasik

assuming that Catalonia was admitted to NATO, what would the newly independent country contribute? At the 2014 Strategic Foresight Forum at the Atlantic Council, Anne Marie Slaughter of the New America Foundation opined that an independent Catalonia would do a fine job of defending itself. After all, Catalonia is a country of over 7 million people, with more than $300 billion in GDP. Spending just 1.6% of that—well below the widely-ignored NATO threshold, of course—provides over $4.5 billion annually. y de-emphasizing the military forces that any landlocked country will have, and instead steering investments towards those it is comparatively positioned to provide, Catalonia could punch above its weight in European political affairs.

Defense Policy Eastern Europe

New Atlanticist

Sep 21, 2017

With a Little Help from My Friends: How Sweden is Balancing its Security in the Baltics

By Anna Wieslander

Sweden is currently conducting its largest military exercises in over twenty years. Almost 20,000 Swedish troops are participating in Aurora17, which will run until September 29. They are joined by military units from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Lithuania, Norway, and the United States, which has sent more than 1,000 troops, including a Patriot missile battery, […]

NATO Northern Europe

MENASource

Sep 8, 2017

Turkey’s fighter pilot problems

By Aaron Stein

The failed coup-attempt on July 15, 2016 upended the Turkish Air Force and prompted the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to purge pilots and air crews from the military. The Air Force played a central part in the failed coup attempt. Although only some two-dozen F-16 pilots took part in the coup in eleven […]

NATO Partnerships Turkey

In the News

Sep 5, 2017

Braw in Defense One: Russia Has 100K Troops On the Move. Here’s Why NATO Can’t Do the Same

By Elisabeth Braw

Read the full article here.

NATO Russia

In the News

Sep 5, 2017

Braw in Defense One: Russia Has 100K Troops On the Move. Here’s Why NATO Can’t Do the Same

By Elisabeth Braw

Read the full article here.

NATO Russia
Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison and Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Aug. 28, 2017

NATOSource

Sep 1, 2017

New Ambassador: US Remains United Behind NATO

By Kay Bailey Hutchison, New York Times

I was nominated as United States ambassador to NATO by President Trump in late June.

NATO Security & Defense

In the News

Aug 30, 2017

Kroenig in Defence 24: NATO Should Recognize the Russian Missile Threat to Europe

By Matthew Kroenig

Read the full article here.

Missile Defense NATO

New Atlanticist

Aug 30, 2017

European Bureaucracy, Not Russia’s Military Exercises, Seen as a Bigger Challenge

By Teri Schultz

Top US military commander in Europe, Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, calls for a ‘military Schengen zone’ As Zapad 2017 looms, the top US military commander worries more about Europe’s sluggish bureaucracy than Russia’s snap military exercises. One word is dominating transatlantic security and defense discussions heading into September: Zapad. The word, which means “west” […]

NATO Russia

New Atlanticist

Aug 21, 2017

NATO’s Cyber Domain Concept Shows Increased Maturity in Understanding of Cyber Threats

By Klara Jordan

Recently, there have been a number of articles that explore the important and ongoing debate about the capabilities and policies NATO needs in order to deter and defend against the ever-looming cyber threats.  While many such articles accurately highlight the urgent need for NATO and its member states to develop a more proactive approach to […]

NATO Security & Defense

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