Burdensharing in the North Atlantic Alliance: A Preliminary Review of the Evidence

Resource Information

The work Burdensharing in the North Atlantic Alliance: A Preliminary Review of the Evidence represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Boston University Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Burdensharing in the North Atlantic Alliance: A Preliminary Review of the Evidence

Contributor

• CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE (U S CONGRESS) WASHINGTON DC
• Johnston, Patricia H
• Kornfeld, Robert
• Pierrot, V. L
• Shephard, J. E
• Thomas, R. W

Subject

• Defense Systems
• Defense systems
• Department of defense
• Economic analysis
• Economic forecasting
• Economics and Cost Analysis
• Europe
• Government and Political Science
• Government(foreign)
• Japan
• Manpower
• Military Forces and Organizations
• Military budgets
• Military force levels
• Nato
• Nato forces
• Political alliances
• Qualitative analysis
• Quantitative analysis
• Tactical aircraft

Language

eng

Summary

For some years, the Congress has been concerned that the European allies were not assuming their proper share of the cost of maintaining adequate defense against aggression. This concern has led the Congress to request that the Department of Defense (DoD) issue an annual report on the contributions made by the United States and its allies in the defense effort. The 1984 report noted that, based on the major quantifiable measures examined, the United States seems to be doing more than its fair share of the NATO and Japan total. But the report also emphasized that "the non-U.S. NATO allies appear to be shouldering roughly their fair share of the NATO and Japan defense burden." The ultimate judgment about the fairness of the U.S. and allied burden is a political one that reflects quantitative data but also many difficult qualitative judgments about the U.S. world role and what might induce its allies to spend more. This paper does not attempt to judge the fairness of the current U.S. burden or DoD's qualitative judgments. Rather, it reviews the large volume of quantitative data and analysis that DoD supplied the Congress in the 1984 report and reaches several conclusions about that data and analysis. While the DoD provided representative data to measure the defense effort of each nation, the report tended to highlight military indicators that cast the efforts of its NATO allies in a favorable light. DoD included Japan in the report at the direction of Congress; however, including Japan obscures the issue of NATO burdensharing and affects the quantitative results. When the quantitative results are recalculated excluding Japan and revising and extending the military indicators, they no longer strongly indicate that the allies are shouldering their fair share of the defense burden. Estimating values for certain "qualitative" factors frequently cited as additional burdens borne by the allies does not substantially alter the quantitative balance

Cataloging source

DTICE

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction