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How to spend it
The Observer
|July 06, 2025
Wrongheaded defence spending will never buy us anything more than the illusion of security
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Something is not right in the defence of the west.
In the past two weeks Nato’s European members agreed in principle to a historic increase in defence spending. Donald Trump appeared to endorse Nato’s article 5 mutual defence pact. But since then he has suspended military aid to Ukraine and had a cordial phone call with Vladimir Putin. Putin then gave the green light for one of his biggest drone and missile attacks on Kyiv.
It would be easy to place all the blame on Trump and Putin - authoritarians refusing point blank to see or say the truth about Ukraine. But it would be wrong. For too long Europe has failed to take responsibility for its own security. Nato’s European members have now pledged to spend 5% of GDP on defence by 2035 but there is no guarantee that the money will materialise or that it will be spent wisely if it does.
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