NATO Burden Sharing

A detailed Summary of NATO Burden Sharing

The NATO Alliance(North Atlantic Treaty Organization), founded in April 1949, dealt with many difficulties building a defense during peace time in order to put the Soviet Union at a political disadvantage. With an increase in Soviet military capabilities during the 60's and 70's the threat of nuclear war increased. This caused the NATO organization to face many economic and social costs in an effort to maintain sufficient deterrence of aggression in Europe. I chose to read a book by James R. Golden based on a study he conducted about "burden-sharing" among the democratic countries of the NATO alliance entitled "NATO BURDEN-SHARING Risks and Opportunities." Golden states in "NATO BURDEN-SHARING" where there are strains in the maintenance of NATO, and how Germany is an important factor in the establishment of long-term stability. In addition to this, he investigates the origins of these strains, and finally whether he thinks it is feasible to redistribute efforts based on priorities within NATO. The intent of this essay is to show how Golden supports his views on burden-sharing within the NATO Alliance, and to finally give my personal view on this topic.

Each NATO member contributes financially, and

with military defense, to the alliance based on how threatened they feel by Soviet Union, and the countries of the Warsaw Pact. According to Golden, one of the key strains within the NATO Alliance is the difficulty of measuring the amount of financial contributions given by each NATO member. On page 24 in "NATO Burden-Sharing " Golden writes:

"Comparing the financial contributions of NATO member nations is difficult even when experts agree about what they are comparing, because definitions of defense spending vary widely, and amounts spent must be adjusted for inflation and corrected for shifts in exchange rates. Even if computations of defense spending are accepted, absolute figures don't reflect true national efforts because countries differ in size, population, and national output."

By occupying Easter Europe, and without NATO, the Soviets would easily be able to take Western Europe hence giving them control over the heartland. Once they have invaded Western Europe they could instate communism as the new form of government, and take control of all their resources, cutting off the United States, and badly hurting our economy because of the fact that 50 percent of our trade is with Western Europe, and the fact that they would not need to seek external assistance in obtaining any resources at that point. With our economy diminishing, eventually we would be come weaker than the world island and eventually be taken by them, hence giving them command of the world. Of course this is all in theory, and no one has ever had total control over the heartland or the world island for that matter, but it's not a theory in my opinion worth testing! The maintenance, and existence of NATO is critical to the security of the world.

Golden recommends conventional military a great form of defense in Eastern Europe, to deter the possibility of the use of nuclear warfare as a first option. I feel that nuclear arms build up is definitely something that is necessary, and should be an option in case of an attack, and with nuclear arms in existence, it makes it the "heartland theory" a lot more difficult, and almost idealistic, because any land or resources obtained serves the heartland ruler no purpose if gets nuked. Although I am not one for world destruction, the threat of mass suicide definitely makes both sides stop, and look for other ways to resolve their differences through negotiations, and compromise, which is the real intent here. Alexander Haig who was the Secretary of State was also i

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Western Europe, NATO Golden, Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Golden Germany, Burden-Sharing Golden, NATO Alliance, Heartland Theory, NATO Germany, France NATO, western europe, soviet union, nato alliance, defense spending, world island, eastern europe, nuclear arms, nato burden-sharing, troops western europe, rules world, rules heartland, rules world island, financial contributions nato, rules heartland rules,

Approximate Word count = 1693
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics