Wars almost always have unintended consequences. For that matter, it seems as though most human activities have unintended consequences. Let’s have a look at one that seems to be occurring in Europe since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For decades NATO member countries such as Germany have not been devoting their required 2% of GDP to defense. According to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, that is going to change. On February 27^th Scholz announced that Germany will increase defense spending to 100 billion Euros. This is a very significant increase given that last year’s budget was only 47 billion Euros. Furthermore, in 2021 Germany only spent 1.52% of GDP on defense. Germany has also halted the joint Russian/German Nord Stream pipeline project and agreed to begin sending weapons to Ukraine. By contrast, the US spends about 3.7% of GDP on defense, and on average NATO member countries (including Canada) only spend 1.77% of GDP. Other countries such as Denmark which only spends 1.35% will increase spending to 1.5% by 2023. Finally, in another bit of welcome news, other European countries (Finland and Sweden) are now discussing joining NATO. None of this is good news for Vlad. For decades European countries have slashed defense budgets in favor of popular social programs. This has shifted the burden of defending Europe onto the shoulders of the US taxpayer. Hopefully, this might finally change.

Defense spending by NATO member country 2021