Japan is at 1.0 percent of GDP-but Washington has favored this level for decades itself, out of worry that higher spending could cause counterreactions among East Asian states fearing (rightly or wrongly) a return to Japanese militarism. Taiwan and Australia are close to 2 percent. In East Asia, South Korea devotes roughly 2.5 percent of GDP to its military.

In terms of military burden sharing per se, other major alliances and security partnerships do a bit better than NATO, on average. But todayвЂ™s situation is far better than having two or more rivalrous groups of strong countries jostling for position with each other, and potentially engaging in arms races or open conflict. Of course, AmericaвЂ™s allies do not always do as it would wish.

Never before in history has such a powerful strategic block of countries been created, especially in the absence of a clear central threat. This situation is exceedingly advantageous to America. The benefits of certain alliances can be debated-but they hardly constitute the wholesale drain on American coffers that he has made them out to be.ДЇirst and foremost, counting the United States as well, the broad coalition of U.S.-led Western alliances accounts for some two-thirds of world GDP and two-thirds of global military spending. On balance, however, TrumpвЂ™s explanation of the economics of AmericaвЂ™s security alliances misses several core realities. Trump result вЂcould have big impact on LithuaniaвЂ™ Yes, some of these countries contribute impressively-more than the United States does, relative to national economic strength-in areas such as development assistance and refugee receptivity, but Trump still has a fair point on this basic and important measure of military preparedness. Germany is at just 1.1 percent of GDP Italy and the Netherlands and Turkey check in at 1.2 percent Belgium and Canada do not even reach 1.0 percent. Only the UK, France, Poland, Greece, and Estonia are near or above 2 percent. NATO allies are pledged to devote 2 percent of GDP each to their armed forces, but the alliance average is less than 1.4 percent. The United States spends about 3 percent of gross domestic product on its military. But relative to GDP, its contributions are still disproportionate. Of course, the United States has the largest economy of any Western ally and thus, rather naturally, the largest defense budget by far. Most notably, America dramatically outspends most allies on its armed forces. It is only fair to acknowledge that some of TrumpвЂ™s arguments about military burden sharing have merit. He began to flesh out his now-familiar critiques of how AmericaвЂ™s many allies and security partners-which number about sixty around the world-fail to do their fair share for the common defense. In his April 27 foreign-policy speech in Washington, Donald Trump leveled a number of critiques at U.S.

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