Trump vs NATO
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 12 July 2018
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Should NATO plan for a future without the United States?
President Trump has long complained that some European members of the organisation have been getting a free ride from the USA after failing to meet their commitment to spend two per cent of their national income on defence.
At the NATO meeting on Wednesday he raised the ante, saying he wanted the two per cent to be raised to four per cent. The rhetoric from the White House has raised fears that the Trump administration might consider withdrawing from NATO altogether.
David Aaronovitch asks to what extent are European NATO members getting a free ride and could they defend themselves without US support?
He assesses the current threat to NATO and asks how the military alliance strengthens its European members and how the United States benefits from membership.
CONTRIBUTORS
Elisabeth Braw, expert on European security at the consultancy Control Risks
Nick Childs, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies
Filippo Costa Buranelli, School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews
Tomas Valasek, former Slovakian permanent representative to NATO
Heather Conley, served in the US State Department during the George W. Bush administration
Producers: Tim Mansel, Serena Tarling and Olivia Beazley
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:03.2 | Welcome to the briefing room with me David Aronovich. The idea is that you and I get briefed together |
| 0:08.3 | on the important questions of the day by people who know what they're talking about. |
| 0:13.0 | If it works for you or even if it doesn't, please let us know what you think by writing a review |
| 0:17.7 | or rating us on iTunes or your podcast provider. |
| 0:26.3 | This week, we're asking if countries in Europe should be preparing for a day when the United States leaves NATO, an organisation that President Trump has described as obsolete. |
| 0:32.4 | And if you enjoy this podcast, you might want to listen back to other editions of the briefing room. |
| 0:36.9 | For example, |
| 0:42.5 | the recent one about the difficulties the British Armed Services are having in finding new recruits. |
| 0:49.1 | Just type BBC Briefing Room into your favourite search engine. Anyway, for now, take your seat in the briefing room. Donald Trump arrived in Brussels yesterday to talk to his allies. |
| 1:01.6 | He started out very disgruntled, trashed the Germans, but then went away apparently happy. |
| 1:07.8 | Tremendous progress has been made. Everyone's agreed to substantially up their commitment. |
| 1:12.6 | They're going to up it at levels that they've never thought of before. |
| 1:17.6 | So everything is hunky-dory with NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. |
| 1:22.6 | Today, at least. |
| 1:24.6 | President Trump has in the past described it as obsolete. This is unprecedented |
| 1:30.3 | language from an American president, and there seems to be a fundamentally different attitude from |
| 1:35.3 | this White House to the Western Alliance. So, how seriously should the European members of NATO take this? |
| 1:42.3 | Should they be preparing? Can they prepare for the |
| 1:45.7 | possibility of a European defence without the United States? Step into the briefing room and find out. |
| 1:55.2 | First, I want to know how NATO came into being at all. What was it for? |
| 2:03.8 | I invited Elizabeth Brawer into the briefing room to tell us. |
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