“… Europeans have grown accustomed to free riding on American power. According to an analysis by the NATO Secretary General, the share of the NATO defence burden falling on the United States has increased from 63 per cent in 2001 to 72 per cent today. This cannot simply be attributed to the impact of the crisis in the euro area: the average defence spending of America’s NATO allies was 2.0 per cent in 2000 and had slumped to 1.5 per cent by 2007, well before the crisis hit. This discrepancy might be forgivable if it reflected shared economic effort. However, the United States spends 4.6 per cent of its GDP on defence.”
Anand Menon, Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at Kings
College London
vara bungas 