“Two-faced” NATO

Hudson Institute

“Two-faced” was the term that dominated media coverage of this week’s NATO summit in London. But the president’s public rebuke of the Canadian prime minister’s hot mic moment inadvertently points to a greater threat challenging the alliance: NATO is increasingly defined by the two contrasting faces of cosmopolitanism and nationalism.

As Hudson Senior Fellow Peter Rough points out, growing tensions have emerged between NATO’s globe-trotting conferees and the citizens of its member nations, who have increasingly turned towards nationalism in the face of domestic hardship and global threats. If this ideological division remains unaddressed, NATO risks collapsing from within as the citizens of its member nations lose trust in the alliance.

Below, Peter suggests five steps that NATO members can take to unite its cosmopolitan and nationalist tendencies, while strengthening the alliance for all of its members.

Read Peter Rough’s “The Transatlantic Bond and the Tussle Between Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism”

5 Ways to Unite NATO

Specific ways that NATO can address contemporary threats and unite its ideological divisions, from Peter Rough’s article “The Transatlantic Bond and the Tussle Between Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism,” first published in Carnegie Europe’s new essay collection, “New Perspectives On Shared Security: NATO’s Next 70 Years”

1. Rebalance the Military Burden: The United States accounts for two-thirds of all defense spending in the 29-member alliance, despite the near economic parity between the US and Europe. This makes it too easy for US administrations of all stripes to cast the Europeans as de facto free riders. Burden sharing constitutes the most serious US objection to NATO. 
2. Address Outside Authoritarians Threatening NATO Members: Russia is using energy, corruption, information operations and military action to undermine NATO members and countries on the alliance’s periphery. Meanwhile, China uses debt financing as a lever over NATO members such as Montenegro and employed unscrupulous practices to capture cutting-edge companies in key European industries.  
3. Steel the Perimeter: NATO must shore up its vulnerabilities along its periphery, such as in the Arctic, where Russia and, to a lesser extent, China have intensified their military operations after decades of calm.  
4. Spotlight Citizen-Focused Concerns: NATO can increase its public appeal by addressing new areas of concern that are of obvious importance to member states and their publics. Although there is little consensus on assigning NATO a role in stemming illegal immigration and the trafficking of humans and weapons that often accompanies it, such an effort would demonstrate the value of the alliance to its citizens. Earlier this decade, NATO engaged in a broad-based anti-piracy operation that could serve as a template for a similar mission to tackle human trafficking. 
5. Nix the Rival Military Idea: NATO members should guard against attempts to create an EU military rival to the alliance, which would lead to the unraveling of US support for NATO. EU defense consolidation could lead to a new bureaucracy duplicating NATO functions and undermine the industrial defense integration that developed across the Atlantic over decades.

Excerpts have been edited for length and clarity