Alliance Burdensharing: A Review of the Data
Abstract
Is the defense effort of the United States disproportionate to that of its allies, when one takes account of the relative sizes of their populations and economies? The Congress has expressed concern that the United States bears an excessive share of the cost of the common defense, especially in Europe. In 1984 the Senate came close to passing an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would have compelled the Secretary of Defense to withdraw troops from Europe if the other members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) did not meet certain quantitative targets for increasing their defense efforts. This year, again, the suggestion has been made that the United States should withdraw some forces from Europe and force its allies to assume a greater share of the burden of defending themselves. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has been requested by the Subcommittee on Conventional Forces and Alliance Defense of the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, to review the Department of Defense's Report on "Allied Contributions to the Common Defense." That annual report assesses a variety of quantitative measures bearing on the relative defense efforts of the NATO allies and Japan. It also examines other factors relating to this issue. CBO previously reviewed the Defense Department's 1984 report and was critical of certain respects of its analysis and conclusions (see "Burdensharing in the North Atlantic Alliance," Staff Working Paper, February 1985). One reason for this new review is to determine whether those concerns are still valid.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1987
- Accession Number
- ADA452698
Entities
People
- Elizabeth Sterman
- R. W. Thomas
- Stephan Thurman
Organizations
- Congressional Budget Office