Rethink and Replace Two Percent

This conversation was recorded on October 27th, 2020.

In today’s fun and educative episode, freelance journalist in Brussels Teri Schultz had a discussion with her guests Derek Chollet, Steven Keil and Chris Skaluba, about their recommendation that NATO rethink and replace its 2% spending guideline. You will learn what this is, reasons to rethink and replace it and how it’s measured, all in this episode. That’s why this is a must watch if you want to learn about this and much more.

In this episode, we learn:• The 2% pledge that was made at the Wales NATO Summit of 2014 that, countries should start to someday spend 2% of their GDP on their own militaries.• Why it's time to drop the 2%, why it hasn't worked and its shortcomings and also the way forward suggested.• Reasons why countries spending 2% of their GDP on militaries was an imperfect metrics to use and what responsible Alliance partnership looks like.• Also that the 2% is not the only metric by which a country's contribution is measured• How the US measures its defense spending versus how Germany measures its own defense spending and how it looks at what it needs to defend.• About the imperfections that arose due to the metrics that the conference came up with in 2014 and how it brought up the spending. • That the 2% is measurement by inputs, but it’s recommended that it should be measured by inputs and outputs and why.• If adding some of the costs such as cyber spending and saying that that should be part of the 2% would work so as to expand the definition of what could be considered a contribution to 2%.• The most important of the recommendations on the 2% pledge issue.

About:Derek Chollet: Executive Vice President at German Marshall Fund of the United Stateshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-chollet-a7155b1b4/

Christopher Skaluba: Director, Transatlantic Security Initiative, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, Atlantic Councilhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-skaluba-63630051/

Steven Keil: Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of United Stateshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-keil-1755b33/

Show Resourceshttps://www.atlanticcouncil.org/ https://www.nato.int/