NATO's annual report flags concerns about falling spending

NATO's falling collective defence spending represents a growing paradox for the organisation, says Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who unveiled the alliance's annual report for 2012.

"Most allies have significantly improved their ability to deploy and sustain their forces for NATO-led international operations. However, total defence spending [across the 28 allies] is going down while that of emerging powers is going up," he said on 31 January. "If this trend continues, we will face serious gaps that would place NATO's military capabilities and political credibility at risk. Our security rests on our prosperity, but you can't be safe if you're broke."

Rasmussen anchored his comments around the statistics identified in the 20-page report.

The document highlights some grim numbers on the expenditures of NATO's European allies. For example, NATO's 'exclusive' club of members that meet its 2%-of-GNP rule for defence spending was already a modest five countries in 2007. For 2012, it is only four: Estonia, Greece, the United Kingdom and the United States. Leaving aside France, Germany and the United Kingdom – which make up more than 50% of the alliance's non-US defence spending – the share of defence expenditure of European allies fell from 8.8% in 2007 to 7.5% in 2012.