In a wide-ranging press conference less than two weeks before taking office, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called for Washington’s NATO allies in Europe to increase their defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, well above the 2 percent threshold the alliance established in 2014. The demand is hardly surprising. Trump has long complained about Europe’s willingness to free-ride on U.S. military power, and during his first term he threatened to withdraw from NATO in retaliation for member states’ financial delinquency.
Trump is right that Europeans must do more—and the U.S. less—when it comes to the continent’s defense. But his fixation on spending targets is misguided and works against U.S. and European interests. Instead of reading from a balance sheet, Trump should push Europeans to finally step outside the U.S. security umbrella and start building the military capabilities and critical enablers they need to independently ensure their security without U.S. assistance.
This would be a substantial policy shift that would cause some heartburn in the U.S. foreign policy establishment and some alarm in European capitals. But it would give the U.S. and Europe new strategic flexibility and is long overdue. To jumpstart Europe’s buildup, however, Trump will need to focus on the right metrics and move decisively, beginning with a partial withdrawal of U.S. military forces from the continent.