Opinion | Mr. Trump, NATO is an alliance, not a protection racket
In his recent interview with the New York Times, Donald Trump warned that the United States would defend only NATO allies who have "fulfilled their obligations to us." He made clear that he sees allies as business partners, and relationships with them in transactional terms: Pay up or we won't protect you.
This framing of alliance relationships as protection-racket contracts misses the strategic value of allies to the United States. We want allies to keep the peace, fight alongside us in times of war and defend our common values — long-term strategic objectives that stretch well beyond any debate about national military budgets.
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