US-Backed Fund Pumps Up the Volume Over European Military Expansion

Founded in 1972, and describing itself as a non-partisan organization funded through a gift from Germany as a permanent memorial to Marshall Plan assistance, the German Marshall Fund (GMF) — based in Washington, DC — has said the US has led from the front in the current crises over Ukraine and the Middle East.

However, it has called on Europe to step up to the mark and increase its military spending. In its latest blog, the GMF said: "The spectrum of threats facing the transatlantic alliance is the most perplexing since the end of the Cold War. At the same time, it has energized the relationship. For Washington policymakers, these challenges have underscored the need for strong security partners in Europe. For European leaders, they are a stark reminder of the importance of US leadership."

The call for Europe to up its military spending follows the campaign by NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg for European Union countries to increase their defense spending to meet the alliance's targets.

"The USA spends four percent of GDP on defence, in Europe we're closer to one percent.

"That isn't a fair distribution of the burden," Stoltenberg said.

Sinking European Defense Spending

The GMF said EU nations should commit to spend two percent of each country's GDP on NATO — and berates many of them for falling short of the target figure. "European defense spending continues to sink. While Poland will join four additional NATO nations in meeting the 2 percent target of defense spending across the 28 members, total alliance defense spending will decline by $50 billion from 2014 levels. 

"Twenty-four of 28 NATO member countries continue to miss the defense spending target. And to make matters worse, one of the four is Greece, whose defense budget is inflated by personnel costs and should actually come down to help get its economic house in order."

The issue of a US-led NATO military build-up in Europe was highlighted last week when US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter toured Europe on his first major trip to the continent. The GMF described it as "one of the most consequential European visits by a Pentagon leader in several years."

During a visit to a military base in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Carter said:

"A year ago, the NATO alliance was wondering what it was going to do after Afghanistan. And in the intervening year, we've discovered not only one thing to do, but two things to do: namely Putin's Russia, to put it bluntly, and ISIS, and what ISIS means for the southern flank and southeastern flank of NATO and for the nations that live there."

"And that has reminded this continent of the need to work hard to protect our own people. It's not a birthright that you get to live life the way people here in Germany do, the way people do in the United States. We need what we have, which is the finest fighting force the world has ever known," Carter said.