France is a valuable American ally and one of the few NATO members that bolster both the alliance’s conventional and nuclear war-fighting capabilities. But President Emmanuel Macron offered true hypocrisy this week when he blamed the United States for supposedly undermining NATO’s credibility.
Speaking to the Economist, Macron said that the world is experiencing “the brain death of NATO.” This is thanks to President Trump, Macron says, and because NATO member Turkey is running amok in Syria. As Macron put it, NATO “only works if the guarantor of last resort functions as such. I’d argue that we should reassess the reality of what NATO is in the light of the commitment of the United States.” Pushed on whether he believes the alliance’s Article 5, which requires allies to aid an attacked ally that triggers the article, Macron said, “I don’t know.” Macron says the European Union must step into the breach to defend the international order.
This is pretty ridiculous stuff.
First off, it’s prima-facie hypocritical. While France does support important NATO capabilities, Macron’s government spends below the 2%-of-GDP NATO defense spending target. France also remains hesitant to deploy its naval forces in presence operations proximate to Russia. These two failings undermine NATO’s deterrent posture. They also gut Macron’s criticisms of the U.S., which continues to underwrite NATO’s defense capability. Thanks to Trump, U.S. defense spending now stands at around 3.5% of GDP. Without that spending, NATO would have near non-existent airlift, deep strike, and satellite warfare capabilities.
Moreover, the American cajoling of Europe has also led to increases in defense spending. This is the key to making NATO stronger: Ultimately, it is force of arms that will deter and defeat Russian aggression, not Macron’s lofty rhetoric.
That rhetoric also fits within Macron’s broader delusion about the EU’s instrumental role in global security. While Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and their EU colleagues speak eloquently about human rights and the liberal international order, their rhetoric is cheap. Figuratively and literally. Alongside France, Germany continues to spend next-to-nothing on defense. So Macron can say all he wants about America’s responsibility for NATO’s difficulties, but if they ever invade, Putin’s combined arms formations aren’t going to be defeated by interviews with the Economist.
My final gripe is the context in which Macron offers his words. The French president laments NATO’s supposed weakness just as he has been flirting with its key enemy, Putin, and undermining the liberal international order with his supplication to imperial China. Macron is trying to pull a Charles de Gaulle by inserting himself as an interlocutor between Western Europe and Putin. But it’s a bad strategy. It will end up with the same result as de Gaulle’s: weakening the west and emboldening its enemies.
Time to go back to the drawing board, Emmanuel.
