Now Is No Time to Abandon Our Allies

I have nothing but affection for my former colleagues and friends at the Cato Institute, so it gives me no pleasure to point out that on one of the most important issues in the world today, libertarians find themselves in remarkable alignment with the nationalist-MAGA right.

A report by Cato’s Justin Logan argues that the way to bolster U.S. alliances is to create uncertainty about our commitment to them. The essay paints a stark picture of U.S. allies’ free riding on the efforts of “Uncle Sucker”: While the United States has accounted for only 36 percent of allied GDP since 1960, it has contributed more than 61 percent of allied defense spending. He notes, correctly, that defense spending by our allies such as Japan or Taiwan has tended to increase when their security environment worsens.

As a result, Logan suggests the United States should encourage all our allies’ security environments to deteriorate; to “stop reassuring our allies,” start withdrawing our troops stationed overseas, and make “it clear that U.S. attention to Europe is likely to wane.” No, seriously. “The only way to produce more equitable burdensharing,” Logan writes “is to make allies doubt the strength of the U.S. commitment: the stronger the belief in the U.S. commitment, the harder it is to get allies to defend themselves.”

 
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Πηγή: aei.org