Jonathan Parish - What is the cost of NATO membership?
“Measuring burden-sharing is not easy,” argues Jonathan Parish, NATO’s former Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning. How does one compare the value of a warship in a “relatively benign” situation to an infantry unit deployed to a combat zone?
NATO member states share the costs of collective defence and they do so according to what Jonathan Parish calls the “three Cs” – cash, capabilities and contributions to operations and missions. In 2014, Allies committed to moving towards a defence investment of 2% of Gross Domestic Product. By 2018, several Allies had already reached that goal and, at the Brussels Summit, all recommitted to the 2% spending goal.