Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Europe is beset by troubles, and the policies of the incoming Trump administration will deepen them. During his first term, Donald Trump insisted that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's European members pay more for their own defense.
While 23 NATO nations are now in compliance with the target of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense, they remain far short of what it would take to defend themselves without America's security guarantee. Europe wasn't always this weak. In 1988, West Germany's army had nearly half a million soldiers; today, Germany's active-duty army numbers only about 180,000.
The army in the 1980s was equipped with more than 2,000 battle-ready tanks; today, only a few hundred are operational. After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, reunified Germany largely disarmed. So did countries throughout Western Europe.
Governments gave priority to social programs over defense. Shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a reorientation of Germany's defense posture. It didn't last long.
Berlin's 2025 budget included a modest increase of $1.3 billion for defense, and spending on military aid to Ukraine was cut in half from 2024's level. This year Germany will give all families, regardless of income, a benefit payment of more than $3,000 per child' payable for offspring as old as 18 and in some cases 25. Annually, Germany will spend as much on that benefit alone as on defense.
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