Summarized: The article discusses former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s views on Europe’s response to the Ukraine war. Marin argues that it is morally and strategically unacceptable for Russia to outspend Ukraine on defense. She suggests that Europe could close the resource gap between Ukraine and Russia by allocating just 0.2% of its GDP. Marin emphasizes that supporting Ukraine is a matter of will and that Europe must take leadership in its own security. She also notes that Europe can no longer rely solely on transatlantic cooperation for its defense. Marin’s comments were made in the context of a report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, where she now works as a strategic advisor.
It says right in the summary that it’s 0.2% of the GDP, which shouldn’t impact other services greatly. There’s no need to turn into a dog-eat-dog style war machine to counter realistic foreign threats.
I like NATO as an alliance of countries looking after each other, but no such alliance should fall apart if any one member falls short and I’ve never been thrilled with the US role of world police. Europe needs to be able to defend itself on its own and stepping up their own contribution to NATO (and their own defense capabilities) is a good thing.