By Jack Levy, Staff Writer
President Donald Trump has been known for his criticisms of the North Atlantic Trade Organization (NATO) in the past. During his first term, he railed against the majority of NATO allies for failing to reach the two percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) spending on defense encouraged by the alliance’s guidelines. While 23 NATO members now meet that requirement, only four did in the first year of Trump’s first term.
Some say President Trump has effectively gotten NATO members to economically contribute more to the alliance. However, others believe that Trump’s frequent clashes with other NATO leaders undermine the alliance’s stability.
Now, President Trump may be looking to make a significant change to NATO. Since 1950, the United States has acted as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander of Europe (SACEUR). General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first to hold the position. According to some defense officials, Trump and the Pentagon are considering withdrawing from this role.
This change is included in one of the proposed plans for the Trump administration’s Pentagon restructuring.
The plan has drawn criticism from the Republican chairs of the House of Representatives, theSenate Armed Services Committees, and other Republicans in Congress. They do not want to see a significant change in the role of the United States armed services and believe Congress should have a say in any military changes that are made.
Opinions vary on whether the US should serve as SACEUR, given that it is not a European nation.
Senior Finance Major Jake Shaw believes the US should keep holding this position.
“The United States contributes more than half of all NATO’s funding. We should have the ability to make the majority of the decisions if we are ever drawn into war because the majority of spending, equipment, and men will come from the United States,” Shaw said. “Having the United States in this role would give us the ability to be the loudest voice in the decision-making process if we were ever at war.”
Senior Business Administration major Vinny Pirolo believes that a European country should be in command of Europe in the event of a war.
“The United States should still have a say in what happens but Europe should be in command of their own continent. There are dozens of countries in Europe and they can nominate one to hold the position,” Pirolo said. “If no country in Europe thinks that they are capable of having the position then it shows they rely too much on the United States. Europe needs to be capable of having a leadership role in their defense.”
In the event of a war that involves NATO, the frontlines are more likely to be in Europe than on US soil. For this reason, President Trump has long held the position that European countries need to be more capable of providing for their own defense.
President Trump has floated the idea of withdrawing from NATO entirely in the past.
Retired US Navy Admiral James Stavridis who held the position of SACEUR from 2009 to 2013 expressed his concern over a potential withdrawal of the United States from the position.
“We would lose an enormous amount of influence within NATO, and this would be seen, correctly, as probably the first step toward leaving the Alliance altogether,” Stavridis said, according to The Kyiv Independent.
Shaw mentioned the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine in discussing his stance on NATO.
“(The war in) Ukraine has given us a wakeup call that NATO actually needs to be ready to fight a war if we need to,” Shaw said. “I don’t think we should withdraw from NATO but every member country needs to be ready and they need to contribute.”
Whether or not the US will withdraw from the role of SACEUR is unknown as President Trump hasn’t directly commented on it yet. This change is also only included in one of the potential plans for the Pentagon’s restructuring. However, if this change happens, it would drastically change the command structure of NATO.
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