Nato leaders pledge increased defence spending – is this really the price for peace and prosperity?

By Damian Tobin, Lecturer in International Business, University College Cork

Nato leaders agreed to ramp up defence spending to 5% of their countries’ economic output by 2035 at a summit in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 25. US president Donald Trump, who has spent months saying Europe should take more responsibility for its own security, described the pledge as “a monumental win for the US” and a “big win” for western civilisation.

A few months earlier, in March, the EU also launched its long-awaited white…

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