Congressional Budget OfficeSkip Navigation
Home Red Bullet Publications Red Bullet Cost Estimates Red Bullet About CBO Red Bullet Press Red Bullet Careers Red Bullet Contact Us Red Bullet Director's Blog Red Bullet   RSS
PDF
NATO BURDENSHARING AFTER ENLARGEMENT
 
 
August 2001
 
 
NOTES

Numbers may not add up to totals because of rounding.

The cover photo was provided courtesy of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
 
 
PREFACE

For more than 50 years, the United States has pledged to help its European allies defend themselves against outside aggression under the Washington Treaty of 1949. The 1998 debate over enlarging the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to include three Central European democracies reignited the longstanding debate as to whether the United States bears an unfair share of the burden of the common defense. This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) paper examines several measures of defense burdensharing to determine how much the United States contributes to the collective defense relative to what other NATO allies contribute. It looks at traditional measures of defense budgets as well as military personnel and other metrics that measure countries' efforts to enhance collective security.

The paper was requested by the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In keeping with CBO's mandate to provide objective and nonpartisan analysis, it makes no recommendations.

The paper was prepared by John J. Lis and Zachary Selden of CBO's National Security Division, under the supervision of Christopher Jehn and R. William Thomas. Delia Welsh and Sally Sagraves provided valuable assistance.

Christine Bogusz edited the paper, and John Skeen proofread it. Cindy Cleveland prepared the paper for publication, and Lenny Skutnik produced the printed copies. Annette Kalicki prepared the electronic versions for CBO's Web site.

Dan L. Crippen
Director
August 2001
 
 

CONTENTS
 

SUMMARY

I - PAST AND PRESENT TRENDS IN BURDENSHARING

II - LIKELY TRENDS IN BURDENSHARING

III - PAYING FOR NATO'S COMMON COSTS

APPENDIXES

A - SUPPLEMENTARY DATA ON DEFENSE SPENDING AND ECONOMIC AID

B - INFORMATION ABOUT DATA SOURCES
 
TABLES  
   
1.  Allied Defense Spending Compared with U.S. Defense Spending, 1985 and 1999
2.  Military and Civilian Personnel as a Percentage of the Labor Force in Selected Years, 1980-2000
3.  Members' Contributions to NATO's Reaction Forces and to Gross Domestic Product in 1998
4.  NATO Forces in Bosnia in Total and per Million of Population, 1996-1999
5.  Allied Contributions to NATO's Common Budgets in 1999
A-1.  Defense Spending as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product in Selected Years, 1980-2000
A-2.  Defense Spending per Capita in Selected Years, 1980-2000
A-3.  NATO Members' Economic Aid to Central and Eastern Europe per Million Dollars of Their Gross Domestic Product in Selected Years, 1991-1997
   
FIGURES  
   
1.  Defense Spending as a Percentage of Gross Domestic Product, 1985 and 1999
2.  Defense Spending per Capita, 1985 and 1999
3.  Personnel in the Kosovo Force per Million of Population, June 2000
4.  NATO Members' Total Economic Aid to Central and Eastern Europe per Million Dollars of Their Gross Domestic Product, 1991-1997
   
BOX  
   
1.  European Responses to American Criticisms of European Burdensharing

Table of Contents Next Page