NATO
Poland spends the most on defence of any NATO member, at 3.9% of GDP, while the US is the main beneficiary of rising allied defence budgets.
NATO
Poland spends the most on defence relative to GDP (3.9%) of any NATO member. The table of military spending and the other NATO military and political data that occasionally surface in the speeches of senior NATO officials, together with Europe’s military history, point to the conclusion that Northern Europe (Finland joined NATO in 2023 after signing a defence pact with Britain; before that it had kept a neutral status since 1945), Central Europe (Poland), Eastern Europe (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and South-Eastern Europe (Romania) are in the longer run destined for a military conflict with Russia. Ukraine first, then Poland and other countries on the flanks (the northern flank being Finnish territory and the south-eastern one Romania).
NATO
The remaining countries in NATO’s military-spending table, those spending less than 2% of GDP, will sooner or later have to meet that set figure, or exceed it, because the geopolitical conflict between NATO members and the countries of the Global South led by Russia, China and Iran is growing and deepening (the flashpoints being Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Africa, South-East Asia and so on). The main beneficiary of higher NATO defence spending is the United States: it allows Washington not only to restart the US military-industrial complex but also to increase substantially the output of military hardware by the defence industry and put the economy on a war footing. The gradual preparation for a war with China is under way.
That is all for a brief history of NATO and the military spending of its member states. I wanted to keep the material shorter but did not manage it. I will try to write shorter articles in future. Perhaps that will suit you better.