The Atlantic Alliance needs more investment

 What the Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance did during his speech to the European Parliament seemed like a real appeal for collaboration between the countries of the Union. Almost a request for help, which could not have been more explicit. The imminent arrival of Trump represents a decisive aggravation of an already difficult and complicated state of affairs. The current situation is not one of true peace, even if there is not even a state of war; however, the Ukrainian conflict is at Europe's doorstep and the situation of the economic commitment of EU members is still far from that two percent of the gross domestic product, which is now considered insufficient to maintain the Atlantic Alliance at an adequate level to respond to the potential critical issues present on the international scene. If Trump's request to bring the gross domestic product of each individual member of the Alliance to 5% seems like a figure rounded up a lot, a reasonable value could be three percent, that is, one percentage point more than the current one, which is also reached by only a few members. If today the situation is considered more or less safe, after the Trump presidency, it may no longer be so. Even if the president-elect's threat was to abandon the Atlantic Alliance, this eventuality, especially for economic reasons, is considered remote, but more likely it is considered possible that the US could implement a disengagement, so as to focus on the issues of the protection of the Pacific area, an essential area to fight China. Europe, even in a general framework of presence of the Atlantic Alliance, must make a greater contribution and respond to the agreements signed to bring military spending to 2% of GDP; but too many states are still far from this objective. In addition to the need to reach the established quota, greater rationalization is needed in the way of spending on military purchases, making joint purchases, capable of guaranteeing greater economies of scale and increasingly efficient integration between the various armed forces, in the absence of a supranational military component, which appears increasingly necessary, to have a greater range of maneuver and autonomy, albeit always within the Atlantic Alliance. At the same time, it is necessary to develop those tools to counter hybrid warfare that are necessary to counter the actions of entities such as Russia, but also China, which tend to influence the political and social life of European states. Disinformation is a weakness of Europe, just as the weapon of irregular immigration functions as a factor of internal and external destabilization, to the point of putting European institutions in difficulty in their command centers. The Ukrainian events have interrupted a stalemate, where the reason for the existence of the armed forces, in European countries, had changed towards the use of peacekeeping forces and interposition in critical areas, but still far from European territory. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the defense ministries realized the inadequacy of the approach of their armed forces, which had gone beyond the concepts of war on the field, with the consequence of also changing their respective arsenals. The economic cycles that have been repeated in recent times have never been positive and characterized by axes of growth, a situation that has favored the contraction of military spending, leaving very low defense potential. If, on the one hand, one can understand the reluctance to spend in the military sector, also considering the theses of the pacifists to the bitter end, it remains a fact that the Russian threat represents a concrete fact, which it is impossible not to take into account, also due to Moscow's dangerous alliances with North Korea and Iran and therefore with areas contiguous to international terror. What must be faced is not only a clear threat, but an opaque universe of indistinct enemies, against which effective strategies must be developed. The French proposal to make military spending towards European companies has a direct value to favor a greater cohesion of European countries, but it could meet resistance from Trump, therefore it will be necessary to find a balance capable of satisfying political requests, but also legitimate European aspirations, because in the long term, also for the USA, a more militarily autonomous Europe, will be an advantage also for Washington and not only for Brussels.