Tactical Nuclear Weapons and NATO.pdf - Program on Strategic ...

ar arsenal due to concerns over other nuclear weapon
states <strong>and</strong> the possibility of nuclear terrorism. 7
Disarmament by Default?
While defense budgets have generally increased
world-wide, that is definitely not the case in Europe.
Partly in reaction to the deepening Eurozone financial
crisis but also reflecting a trend that has been going on
for some time, European Allies’ defense budgets are
in free fall. The average annual defense outlay is well
below 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP),
<strong>and</strong> it will get worse. Potentially in 2012, nine nations
will spend less than 1.0 percent of GDP on defense.
While the markets frequently express optimism
that Euro leaders have “fixed” the Eurozone crisis,
uncertainties persist. Many analysts believe that a financial
catastrophe awaits the Eurozone. Greece with
a government debt some 143 percent of the size of its
economy may soon default. Italy, with a debt some 120
percent the size of its economy, now looks like it will
follow Greece. Spain’s credit rating was downgraded
in October 2011, <strong>and</strong> Portugal <strong>and</strong> Irel<strong>and</strong> continue to
teeter on the brink. The debt contagion long feared is
now fact as the cost of borrowing continues to increase
for governments that have resolutely refused to make
the reforms necessary to balance the books. Indeed,
Allied governments have routinely obscured their actual
debt levels, <strong>and</strong> complicit western European leaders
have for too long simply hoped for a miracle. In
the face of these realities, one would be hard pressed
to find anyone who will predict that defense spending
will grow or even manage to hold the line. It is now
projected that the high-performance aircraft that key
<strong>NATO</strong> Allies intend to procure, the Joint Strike Fighter,
380