Is There Life After NATO?

It is often claimed that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 requires the United States to defend "every inch" of NATO territory. The historical evidence, however, shows that this is not the case at all. It is also commonly claimed that until Donald Trump came along, no American president would have dreamed of threatening not to defend the European allies. This too, it turns out, is not supported by the evidence. But it is not just a question of getting the history right. Those historical claims are important because they support the more fundamental claim that the NATO system is so obviously in America's interest that it needs to be treated as sacrosanct. But has it been such a phenomenal success? This paper explores that issue by looking at the policy the United States has pursued in this area since 1991. The main conclusion to be drawn from that discussion is that alternative policies are very much worth considering, and the paper concludes with a brief discussion of the most basic alternative we need to think about: a system in which the Europeans essentially defend themselves and the United States plays only a peripheral role in European affairs.